r terrorism to protect the UK against attacks requires increasing the difficulty for terrorists to strike as well as increasing the risk of failure. For example, installing surveillance technology to deter terrorist activity. Additionally, suicide bombers can be deterred by aggressive state action therefore reducing the threat. However, deterrence relies on the ability to convince potential adversaries that acts of aggression will result in greater costs than benefits. As a result, the effectiveness of deterrence can be questioned. Counter terrorism can result in greater issues as instead of reducing terrorist activity can cause a displacement towards “cheaper” means of terrorism. This may be to other venues or countries where targets are relatively softer. Many studies highlight strong empirical evidence for this substitution effect. Enders and Sandler empirically analyse the effects of some protective measures. They show that metal detectors and body searches introduced at airports have proven effective so far in decreasing sky threats such as hijacking. Furthermore, an alternative counter terror policy includes a ‘tax’. This involves shifting the supply of terrorism upwards therefore increasing the marginal cost of tax. As the cost increases it is more likely to deter people against terrorism.

For the UK the threat of terrorism is rising in risk therefore is a greater issue than the likelihood of war. Security policy for terrorism is carried out by the security service MI5 who are responsible for protecting UK residents against threats. To reduce terrorist threats research suggests defensive measures such as mitigation of impacts can be used. This involves lowering the benefits from terrorist attacks which can occur through decentralisation or changing media practices for reporting attacks. Decentralisation makes attacks less attractive as the effects and damage are smaller. Restricting media attention results in terrorist groups failing to reach large audiences therefore they struggle to implement fear on society. Frey and Lucchinger provide a counter terrorist approach the UK could implement to enhance security policy. This involves the government manipulating media recognition of terrorist groups so to reduce the benefits of the attack for the terrorists. Empirical findings carried by Frey highlight that media attention and terrorism share a bidirectio