About TRC

Founded in 1996, the Terrorism Research Center, Inc. (TRC) is an independent institute dedicated to the research of terrorism, information warfare and security, critical infrastructure protection and other issues of low-intensity political violence and gray-area phenomena. The TRC represents a new generation of terrorism and security analysis, combining expertise with technology to maximize the scope, depth and impact of our research for practical implementation. The Terrorism Research Center has been providing cutting edge solutions for real world challenges.

The TRC has provided core expertise in terrorism, counterterrorism, critical infrastructure protection, information warfare and security (including design review, technical assessments, policy development and review, and training), vulnerability and threat assessment (red teaming), systems engineering, encryption, intelligence analysis, and national security and defense policy.

The TRC maintains a network of terrorism and information warfare specialists drawn from industry, government, and academia in the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Argentina, India, the Middle East, France, and Australia.  The TRC has produced a number of independent studies, including a comprehensive overview of US policy, strategy, programs, and budget to combat terrorism, produced for a US industry customer. The TRC conducts numerous customized open source training programs for the military, law enforcement, intelligence and corporate clients bringing in subject matter experts to teach in most of our unique training programs.

As a public service, the TRC also operates a public web site that has received over 8,000,000 hits per month and is used by researchers worldwide. It is linked to by over 5000 sites on the Internet and has been cited as a source by CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, Terrorism and Political Violence, Newsweek, NPR and numerous other popular news media, professional associations, and academic journals and books. Global media web sites such as CNN.com, as well as Official US Government web sites, regularly list the TRC as a sole private source for online information.

The Terrorism Research Center has a wealth of history tackling issues and providing cutting edge solutions to challenging problems. Below are just a few of the specialized projects that TRC has undertaken.

The TRC conceived, designed, developed, maintained, and operated the Responder Knowledge Base until September 16, 2008. Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness and the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, the Responder Knowledge Base (RKB) has been designed to provide emergency responders with a single source for integrated information on current equipment, including organizing lists such as the Interagency Board's Standardized Equipment List (SEL), and the Authorized Equipment List (AEL) from the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness. The RKB also adds value through knowledge links, user opinions, and hints authored by subject matter experts. By integrating this information into one location, the RKB has become a "go-to" site for the responder community to begin answering questions such as:  What equipment is out there? (including searches using the SEL and AEL) Has it been certified? To what standard? What training is needed to use it? How do I pay for it? Whom can I talk to that has used it? Vendors, testing agencies, standards organizations and trainers are supporting the RKB by populating it with current data. There is no charge to them for posting their data, and no charge to the community for accessing it. The RKB is provided as a public service.

Terrorism Early Warning Group Expansion In early 2001, TRC approached the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) with a concept for expanding the Los Angeles Terrorism Early Warning (TEW) group concept to other cities within the United States. Having worked with the TEW since 1997, the TRC saw first-hand how the concept helped to improve terrorism prevention and response using a multi-discipline approach to intelligence fusion and analysis, information sharing and incident pre-planning. In the fall of 2001, TRC initiated the TEW Expansion Project under the sponsorship of MIPT. After successfully demonstrating the concept worked in other cities, the program was expanded under the sponsorship of DHS. TRC work with DHS and MIPT to expand the TEW concept to the 57 cities within the United States and Guam. For more information please read the TEW brochure. The TRC TEW Expansion team was lead by Ed Reed, who established the Pierce County TEW in Washington state. You can read about their experiences in the TEW Case Study

Project Pediatric Preparedness The TRC, in cooperation with the Tulsa Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS), and with support from the Georgetown University Bio-Security Institute conducted a project sponsored by a Department of Homeland Security MMRS Special Projects Grant, to examine technical and operational challenges and solutions for pediatric emergency preparedness and responses to terrorism. Responders need the proper knowledge, capabilities, training, and authorities to deal with the unique requirements of children in crisis.   Children have unique characteristics that may require different treatment and handling protocols than adult victims in a major terrorist incident. The project brought together traditional emergency responders personnel, EMTs, pediatricians and other pediatric medical specialists to include psychologists and nurses, as well as lawyers and homeland security planners. A publication "Project Pediatric Preparedness" provides a statement of needs and gaps in pediatric emergency response, across a number of domains - medical, technological, doctrinal, psychological, legal, etc and provides  recommendations for near or long-term strategies and plans to mitigate or close these gaps.

Project Responder Under a subcontract to Hicks and Associates, the Terrorism Research Center conducted extensive research and coordinated a series of expert workshops and exercises pulling together lessons learned and identifying best practices to create a series of National Terrorism Response Objectives. This program covers topics such as Personal protection equipment; Detection, identification and assessment; Unified incident command decision support and interoperable communications; Response and recovery; Emergency management preparation and planning; Crisis evaluation and management; Medical response; Logistics support; Criminal investigation and attribution; All-source situational understanding; Public health readiness for biological agent events; and mitigation and restoration of plant and animal resources.

Joint Staff Red Teaming The Joint Staff and Combatant Commands developed new Joint Operating Concepts (JOCs), Joint Integrating Concepts (JICs) and Joint Functional Concepts (JFCs), all of which will be tested, revised and validated through joint experimentation and capabilities-based assessments. The development of new concepts and the clear definition of required supporting capabilities are central to the Defense Department's strategy to transform its forces to meet 21st century security challenges. In FY05, TRC led an independent red team to review and ensure that new concepts are robust and are developed in sufficient detail to support the achievement of the desired capabilities.