Sources used in this document:

Importance

Disrupting the financing of terrorist activities and organizations and breaking up the networks that provide such financing is immensely important in the overall fight against terrorism and an effort to maintain international and national security (Anderson, 2008). The extensive list of financing mechanisms given in Appendix B of the document makes it clear that terrorist organizations are adept at finding and exploiting weaknesses in international security and in developing complex systems to achieve their ends, including the taking in of finances (Anderson, 2008). A disruption of terrorist organizations' financing activities not only directly inhibits their ability to carry out terrorist actions but also disrupts the support networks these organizations form in other ways, hurting their image and the degree of popular support they are able to generate in the countries and regions in which they operate (Anderson, 2008). In this way, disrupting a terrorist organization's ability to generate financing is creating a host of vulnerabilities for such an organization that would not otherwise exist, drastically weakening them in the short- and long-terms.

Terrorist groups also depend on a certain amount of secrecy, and this creates many opportunities to disrupt their financial activities. Trying to remain hidden while taking in millions of dollars is difficult, and simple exposure can be enough to disrupt certain funding lines (Anderson, 2008). Exploiting terrorist organizations' weaknesses by disrupting their financing activities makes it very difficult for these organizations to generate further income, leading to an ever shrinking supply of funds and of mechanisms.