Abstract

It would be a good thing if civilization could be defended from terrorist attacks cheaply, before they have occurred, and without the necessity of resorting to war, colonialism, the curtailment of liberty, or compromising the intricate and delicate webs of relationships required to support free trade and open societies. It’s an information management problem, and, as usual, the survival of civilization depends on technical contributions that the professions represented at this conference are uniquely positioned to make. Some of the most daunting aspects of the Terrorism Forecasting problem have to do with its mind-boggling scale. Literally all of the information that supports civilization may need to be integrated before the tenuous patterns of terrorist behavior can be detected. Since this is technically feasible, we are left in a position where we must face issues that are even more challenging.