A very interesting report was just issued by the START center of excellence on terrorism at the University of Maryland on violent extremist trends in 2017. It is worth a read. Here are some good news highlights: The total number of terrorist attacks worldwide in 2017 decreased by 23 percent and total deaths due to […]
Branding is important. Companies spend tens of millions on advertising campaigns to get people to recognise them and buy their products. Even as a one-man band I know how crucial it is to get the name of my consulting firm, Borealis, out there so that potential clients find out about me, what I can provide […]
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘mercenary’? My guess is nothing good. Mercenaries tend to evoke images of men who fight for all the wrong reasons – lucre/money, a need to be active, perhaps a love for violence. They certainly do not have a great reputation, at […]
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Terrorism is cheap: get used to it.
How much money do you carry in your wallet? If you are Canadian not much. We are apparently the world’s most frequent users of debit, followed by the Swedes. So I guess not much then. Before the dawn of debit, though, I would wager that most people carried $60-100 on them at any given time. […]
A couple of months ago I attended a meeting of TSAS, an assembly of Canadian academics who look at terrorism and national security issues (TSAS stands for ‘Terrorism, Security and Society). I have a number of friends at TSAS and am in fact an affiliate, although I am not myself an academic. At that meeting […]
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Terrorism and citizenship
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on September 3, 2018. What is a citizen? Well it depends. The concept appears to date back to city states in ancient Greece, but in the modern era each state decides what the rules are. For the average person citizenship is determined by the particular country in which […]
One of the harshest criticisms over a lot of stuff that is written about terrorism is the distinct lack of reliable and primary sources. Papers and books are written in an academic style with little use of actual data, although as my friend Bart Schuurman in the Netherlands has stated things are looking up as […]
So what are YOU afraid of? Snakes? Sharks? Public speaking? For me it is heights. I have a hard time even climbing a ladder to clean out the eavestroughs at home. Seriously, a metre off the ground and I get weak in the knees. Yeah, I know, what a wimp! What about terrorism? Does it […]
This piece appeared in The Hill Times on August 27, 2018 Whatever side you take on the investigation by former FBI Director Robert Mueller on whether the Trump campaign team colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential elections – either it is a very serious allegation of wrongdoing by the current president and/or his […]
I have a confession to make. I do not like Geert Wilders. The platinum blond Dutch politician is, in my humble opinion, a self-focussed, attention-seeking, grandstanding man. In other words, I think he is a jerk. He is not the only jerk out there of course and it is important to stress that there is […]