Public-private partnerships in the fight against terrorism?

Based on a case study of the role of private financial institutions in the fight against terrorist financing, this article examines the rationales for, and actual results of, public-private partnerships in counterterrorism. It shows that there is still a lack of appreciation of the roles that regular private business play, both willingly and unwillingly, in the fight against terrorism. As profit, rather than security, maximizers, private sector actors may decide to take certain security risks rather than addressing them directly, which in contrast is expected from public agencies. As a consequence, public-private partnerships have not been the silver bullet that the representatives of public agencies had hoped for since 9/11. In fact, to many private sector representatives, they are more akin to public-private dictatorships.