ABSTRACT On 15 March 2019, Brenton Tarrant destroyed New Zealand’s perception of its low threat terrorist risk. Security sector practitioners interviewed for this study before 15 March spoke about the challenges of performing counter terrorism roles in that low threat environment. Their perceptions revealed a fear that terrorist attacks occurring overseas, would sooner or later occur in New Zealand. Their roles were complicated by an overarching sense of social, bureaucratic and political complacency toward the threat of terrorism. They perceived legislative inertia, which fettered the powers and resources agencies had to effectively act against the risks they believed were present. Despite these barriers, security sector agencies continued to look for possible emerging threats across a spectrum of risk, but relied on improvised use of existing legislation to manage it. This was more effective against those motivated by militant jihadism, and as Tarrant demonstrated, less so against other threats. Community engagement was needed and successfully achieved, although difficulties were observed which need to be addressed, and the media was perceived as having an undue influence over New Zealand’s security priorities, highlighting the need for a national counter terrorism strategy.

中文翻译：

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基督城袭击前安全部门从业人员对恐怖威胁环境的看法

摘要 2019 年 3 月 15 日，布伦顿·塔兰特 (Brenton Tarrant) 摧毁了新西兰对其低威胁恐怖主义风险的看法。在 3 月 15 日之前接受本研究采访的安全部门从业人员谈到了在这种低威胁环境中履行反恐职责所面临的挑战。他们的看法表明，他们担心发生在海外的恐怖袭击迟早会发生在新西兰。由于对恐怖主义威胁的社会、官僚主义和政治自满的总体感觉，他们的角色变得复杂。他们意识到立法惯性，这限制了权力和资源机构必须有效应对他们认为存在的风险。尽管存在这些障碍，安全部门机构仍在继续寻找各种风险中可能出现的新威胁，但依靠即兴利用现有立法来管理它。这对那些受激进圣战主义驱使的人更有效，正如塔兰特所证明的那样，对其他威胁则不太有效。尽管观察到需要解决的困难，但需要并成功实现社区参与，并且媒体被认为对新西兰的安全优先事项具有不当影响，突出了制定国家反恐战略的必要性。