This thesis analyzes the Sovereign Citizens Movement—considered a domestic terrorist organization by the FBI— to determine if the label “terrorist organization” is appropriately applied, and then to assess the effectiveness of government protocols. The Sovereign Citizens Movement is a loose organization of individuals who adhere to an anti-government ideology. In most cases their actions are limited to fraudulent activity; however there have been individuals who resorted to violence in their engagements with government officials. This thesis concludes that the label “terrorist organization” does not describe the movement well, but that it is more likely that some individuals extrapolate the ideology and choose violence on their own, making them lone-wolf terrorists. Another conclusion of this thesis is that there needs to be a regular set of protocols established for all government agencies for interacting with Sovereigns. The method created by Rob Finch and Kory Flowers, which incorporates both law enforcement officials and legal professionals, provides the most effective way to interact with Sovereigns.

The thesis is focused on the terrorism after the attacks of 09/11, which is a key factor in its considering as a one of the most serious security threats in the 21st century. The thesis deals with a perception of the terrorist threat, particularly if it corresponds with reality and what it is influenced by or constructed by. Further the thesis is concerned about "the war on terrorism" as a reaction on the attacks which has become an American national mantra. It is tried to find out if the reaction was adequate in relation with seriousness of the attacks, if it was effective in regard of fulfilling its aims and if it was legitimate in comparison with our values and moral principles.

The current terrorist threat that Sweden and other countries are facing is far more complex than before. In 2005, the National Centre for Terrorist Threat Assessment (NCT) was established to conduct strategic terrorism threat assessments. Three years later, NCT became a permanent working group staffed with designated employees from three different government authorities; the Swedish Security Service (Säpo), National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) and the Swedish Armed Forces’ Military Intelligence and Security Directorate (Must).  This study aims at understanding how co-operation is conducted between the designated government authorities within the NCT, when developing strategic threat assessments. The study also examines if today’s cooperation and information exchange is working satisfactorily or if it should be developed, and in that case what obstacles and which success it could have.    The used methodology is based on a qualitative approach, consisting of information collection from both official documents and semi-structured interviews with past and present employees directly and indirectly affiliated with NCT. The information is then analyzed based on the perspectives of co-operation and governance.  The study concludes that the participating authorities, apart from the designated employees, lack full knowledge and understanding of NCTs task, as national coordinating function for strategic terrorism threat assessments. The lack of knowledge and understanding of different government´s tasks lead to work being conducted in silos, which could lead to information is not disseminated to the appropriate recipient.  Due to the complex nature of the current threat, there is a need for involvement of more authorities and organization in NCTs work, in order to enhance the knowledge of the threat and minimize the risk of valuable information loss. The study also displays that NCTs capability to produce long-term assessment and hamper the risk of an “information bubble” can be reduced by decentralized command structure. Finally, this study shows that information exchange between authorities and NCT can be facilitated by common IT-systems, continuous staffing, and co-localization. / Sverige och världen står inför en alltmer komplex hotbild när det kommer till terrorism. För att göra strategiska terrorhotbedömningar, som tillsammans med övriga bedömningar, ligger till grund för den hotnivå som beslutas av Säkerhetspolischefen, så bildas 2005 - Nationellt Centrum för Terrorhotbedömning (NCT). NCT blev en permanent grupp 2009 och består av representanter från tre olika myndigheter – Säkerhetspolisen (Säpo), Försvarsmakten (FM) med Militära underrättelse- och säkerhetstjänsten (Must) och Försvarets Radioanstalt (FRA). Syftet med denna studie har varit att få förståelse för hur samverkan mellan myndigheterna inom NCT fungerar vid framtagning av strategiska terrorhotbedömningar. Denna studie har också sökt svar på om samverkan och informationsdelning fungerar fullt ut idag vid NCT eller om samverkan skulle kunna utvecklas framöver, vilka framgångsfaktorer och hinder det finns för en sådan utveckling. Studien har utgått från en kvalitativ metod där officiella dokument och skrivelser har granskats för att ta reda på hur myndighetssamverkan och myndighetsstyrning regleras i dessa, och hur ansvarsfördelningen ser ut mellan respektive myndighet. Vidare har det genomförts semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer som har en direkt eller indirekt koppling till NCT. Det empiriska underlag som fåtts fram har sedan analyserats tillsammans med utvalda referenser som har koppling till myndighetsstyrning och samverkan. Studiens slutsatser visar att hemmamyndigheterna saknar full kunskap och förståelse för uppgiften som NCT har, att vara den strategiska samordningsfunktionen för terrorhotbedömningar. Avsaknad av kunskap och förståelse för olika myndigheters uppgifter leder till att arbete sker i stuprör, vilket kan leda till att information inte sprids till de som behöver den. För att kunna hantera den komplexa hotbild som Sverige står inför behöver fler myndigheter och organisationer stödja NCT:s arbete, detta för att bredda kunskapen och minska riskerna att information går förlorad. Vidare visar studien att förmågan vid NCT att göra strategiskt långsiktiga bedömningar och motverka att hamna i en ”informationsbubbla”, där man riskerar att göra för kortsiktiga och snäva bedömningar, sker med stöd av en decentraliserad ledningsstruktur. Slutligen visar studien att det som underlättar för informationsdelning mellan myndigheterna och NCT är gemensam sambands och IT-utrustning, kontinuitet på personal med rätt kunskap och att vara samlokaliserade.

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