Terrorism is high on the forum’s agenda this year. It constitutes one of the top threats to global security, according to a survey of international business and political leaders attending the event.

“What we face in the 21st century is the ability of even a single individual, and certainly a group, to leverage technology in a way to cause a type of destruction and a magnitude of destruction that would have been unthinkable a century ago,” Chertoff said.

As the destructive potential of the next large-scale terrorist attack grows with every technological advance, Chertoff said, so too does the risk of failing to detect terrorists before they strike.

Governments thus are faced with the challenge of striking the right balance among providing security, facilitating free flow of goods and services, and protecting citizens’ civil liberties.

It is for this reason, Chertoff said, the United States approaches counterterrorism from the perspective of risk management. Because working to prevent every conceivable threat would be virtually impossible, the United States focuses its efforts on identifying and preventing the greatest threats.

Countries must be willing to stand together and take decisive action against hostile regimes and nonstate entities seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction for future attacks, he said.

“At the end of the day, if those who are trafficking in this activity don’t take seriously our will to enforce the rules, all the paperwork in the world is not going to make a difference,” Chertoff said.

PANELISTS CONSIDER ROOT CAUSES OF TERRORISM

Chertoff joined Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukut Aziz, leader of the British Conservative Party David Cameron and the European Union’s counterterrorism coordinator, Gijs de Vries, who also discussed the root causes of terrorism and how best to confront them.

Tackling terrorism requires more than security operations and sophisticated technologies. Deprivation, in the form of poverty and the lack of basic political freedoms and economic opportunities, turns people into terrorists, Aziz said.

The international community must do more to help alleviate poverty and must redouble diplomatic efforts to promote a working Israeli-Palestinian peace, a settlement in Lebanon and progress in Iraq -- all causes exploited by terrorists to rationalize their attacks, he said.

The world must reject terrorists’ attempts to justify their murderous acts in the name of religion, the panelists said.

"Terrorism is not a friend of anybody. Terrorism is not linked to any faith," Aziz told the panel. “It is a mindset we are dealing with.”

“I accept that Islam is a peaceful religion and does not endorse this use of violence,” Chertoff said.

The panelists also agreed that a careful balance between security and civil liberties is essential.

“We’ve got to be very strong in combating terrorism but equally strong in defending liberty, democracy and the things we are actually fighting for,” Cameron said.

“That means that not everything is permitted in the War on Terror,” de Vries said. “To use detention without trial, or detention without charge, to use secret prisons, should not be acceptable.”

Chertoff, a former prosecutor and federal judge, agreed, but added that governments must weigh the potentially catastrophic consequences of a successful terrorist attack as they pursue terrorists. Because of “the complexity of global terrorism,” thwarting terrorism might require measures beyond those commonly utilized in prosecuting criminals, such as increased intelligence collection.

“We are going to have to come to a sustainable approach to this that safeguards fundamental liberties, but does not regard every security measure as inherently a civil liberties problem,” Chertoff said.

A video link to the panel discussion and more information on the 2007 annual meeting are on the World Economic Forum's Web site.