290 CHAPTER EigHT ■ War and Strife
technology like face- recognition software, committed individuals or groups of terror-
ists are difficult to preempt or deter. Indeed, such individuals may be seen as heroes in
their community.
The international community has taken action against terrorists, first by creating a
framework of international rules dealing with terrorism. The framework includes 12
conventions that address such issues as punishing hijackers and those who protect them;
protecting airports, diplomats, and nuclear materials in transport; and blocking the
flow of financial resources to global terrorist networks. Individual states have also taken
steps to increase state security (the United States’ controversial USA Patriot Act is one
example); to support counterintelligence activities; and to promote cooperation among
national enforcement agencies in tracking and apprehending terrorists. States have sanc-
tioned other states they view as supporting terrorists, or as not taking effective enforce-
ment mea sures. Libya, Sudan, Af ghan i stan, Syria, Iran, and Iraq are prominent
examples. But it is impor tant to recall that even developed states such as the United States,
i n April 2014, terrorists affiliated with Boko Haram (or “Western ways are forbidden”)
kidnapped 276 schoolgirls at a secondary school in Chibok, Nigeria. To date, the Nigerian
government has proven unable to find the girls, who many believe have since been forced
to convert to islam and in some cases marry Boko Haram fighters. Here, a student who
escaped the school identifies some of her classmates.