Episode 301 – Do we need to create a new class of terrorism, or is this overcomplicating matters?
We have all become too familiar with terrorism over the decades, especially since 9/11. There are all kinds of groups which use violence in the pursuit of all kinds of goals and they all have some form of ideology they use to justify their actions. So what happens when acts of violence are not tied to a coherent ideology? Is this too terrorism? I talk with an Australian specialist on this issue.
About my guest
Peta Lowe is a specialist in countering violent extremism, terrorism rehabilitation, and reintegration. She is the Principal Consultant at Phronesis Consulting & Training and has over 10 years of experience working across Australia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Her work focuses on disengagement from violent extremism, supporting individuals and communities affected by terrorism, and designing rights-based, trauma-informed rehabilitation models. Ms. Lowe has provided expert assessments to courts in terrorism-related cases, offering insight into individual risk, motivation, and pathways to rehabilitation. She also contributes to international efforts on managing returning foreign fighters and their families. She delivers global capacity-building on trauma-informed interviewing, reintegration planning, and case management for terrorist offenders. Peta’s work is grounded in evidence-based practice, combining psychosocial expertise with real-world operational experience. She is passionate about building systems that promote sustainable disengagement, uphold the rule of law, and support long-term resilience in communities affected by conflict and violent extremism.
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Canadian Intelligence Eh
In a world of multiple voices and opinions it can be very hard to know where to turn. One choice is to look to those who actually worked in counter-terrorism in the national security world.
In these half-hour podcasts, 32-year Canadian intelligence veteran Phil Gurski is joined by a fascinating array of individuals with something meaningful to say about these issues as they provide insight into what they mean and what we need to do about them.
About Phil Gurski
Phil worked as a senior strategic analyst at CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) from 2001-2015, specializing in violent Islamist-inspired homegrown terrorism and radicalisation. From 1983 to 2001 he was employed as a senior multilingual analyst at Communications Security Establishment (CSE – Canada’s signals intelligence agency), specialising in the Middle East. He also served as senior special advisor in the National Security Directorate at Public Safety Canada from 2013, focusing on community outreach and training on radicalisation to violence, until his retirement from the civil service in May 2015, and as consultant for the Ontario Provincial Police’s Anti-Terrorism Section (PATS) from May to October 2015. He also ran Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting from May 2015 to May 2025.
He was the Director of Security and Intelligence at the SecDev Group from June 2018 to July 2019 and the Director of the National Security Programme at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute from 2020-2022. He has also taught on national security issues at George Brown College, the University of Ottawa and Georgian College. Mr. Gurski has presented on violent Islamist-inspired and other forms of terrorism and radicalisation across Canada and around the world and is actively sought by Canadian and international media on national security and intelligence issues. He has written hundreds of op-eds on these matters for several Canadian media since 2016
He is the author of The Threat from Within: Recognizing Al Qaeda-inspired Radicalization and Terrorism in the West (Rowman and Littlefield 2015) Western Foreign Fighters: The Threat to Homeland and International Security (Rowman and Littlefield 2017), The Lesser Jihads: Taking the Islamist fight to the world (Rowman and Littlefield 2017), An end to the ‘War on Terrorism (Rowman and Littlefield 2018), When Religion Kills: How Extremist Justify Violence Through Faith (Lynne Rienner 2019), The Peaceable Kingdom? A history of terrorism in Canada from Confederation to the present (self-published: 2021, republished by Double Dagger in 2022), and the forthcoming The Fenians: Brotherhood of fools or Canada’s first terrorist threat? (Double Dagger: 2025). He regularly blogs and podcasts (Canadian Intelligence Eh!), and posts on Bluesky (@borealissaves.bsky.social) on terrorism and intelligence matters.
