This article in the journal Foreign Policy lays out some highly successful counterterrorism efforts in nations as different as France, Russia, Egypt, Jordan and Singapore. It is a quick read and serves as a decent primer on fighting terrorism.
The common thread in all of the efforts is that civil liberties are often infringed upon in the process. At some point, people have to decide the extent to which they are willing to compromise civil liberties to squelch terrorism.
