Vladimir Sergevnin thinks that countries need to present a united front toward terrorism if it’s going to be stopped.

“We have to have a common approach to this problem,” he said.

Sergevnin spoke at the Symposium on International Terrorism that took place Monday and was sponsored by the EIU Public Policy Institute.

Sergevnin teaches at the Illinois Law Enforcement Executive Institute out of Western Illinois University.

He was a former law enforcement officer in Russia before coming to the United States. He talked about the obstacles countries need to overcome to deal with terrorism, defining the terminology, communication between different agencies in countries own government, and Rule of Law.

The first step to presenting a unified front is to define the terminology, he said.

“What is terrorism,” he asked. “Terrorism is a threat of violence, or using violence.

Many agree that this is universal.”

But that’s where the similarities stop. He explained that countries like the United Kingdom call the same humans freedom fighters who in Russia are considered terrorists.

They may have a good cause, but why kill students to make your point, he said.

By uniting together, terrorists – regardless of the definition – would have no place to hide, he said.

The Charleston-Mattoon room was partially filled with mostly police officers, community members and professors.

University Police Chief Adam Due said that he found Sergevnin’s points very interesting specifically his final point that in Russia, law enforcement officials can use more authoritarian practices.

“We want to do things to protect students, but we have to respect their rights and privacy,” he said about the differences between the way law enforcement works in the United States versus Russia.