MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

British Academics delivered counterterrorism course in Uruguay

Personnel from the Uruguayan, Brazilian, Chilean and Paraguayan armed forces, as well as the Argentine Gendarmerie attended the regional course.

Two instructors from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst gave a course on counterterrorism from 9-13 April at the Uruguayan Naval War College in Montevideo. The purpose of the course was to provide an introduction to the key principles of the fight against terorrism and its practical application through the British approach and the study of a wide range of contemporary cases.

Dr. Aaron Edwards, one of the professors of Sandhurst Academy who came to Uruguay, said that while sharing the UK’s own experiences, principles and best practice in countering terrorism with our colleagues from Latin America, we have learned a range of mutually beneficial lessons from each other.

“Perhaps the most important of these lessons is that we must be prepared to respond with both imagination and intellectual agility when faced with the multi-faceted problem posed by terrorism”.

During the week, the course addressed the changing nature of terrorism, the strategic, operational and tactical responses to terrorism and how to build an effective counterterrorism strategy.

There were a series of interactive classes, problem-solving discussions and lectures, and at the end of the training, the students applied the techniques developed during the week in a role-play exercise.

Dr. Edwards added that even though terrorism affects some states more than others, ”countries with no previous experience in terrorism may have to confront an attack when they least expect it”.

The course offers capacity building in a range of skills for participants to be able to prepare, prevent, pursue and protect others against the threats posed by terrorism in order to build a sophisticated and comprehensive government approach to dealing with root causes and vindications that lead to terrorist acts.