Category: Perspectives

The shootings in Dallas last week are a tragedy no matter what your political stripe.  The murder of five police officers, those we entrust to keep us safe, tends to hit hard.  The apparent unjustified shootings and deaths of several black Americans by police officers in recent months is likewise a very sad series of […]

Every day we seem to read about yet another terrorist attack attributed to Islamic State.  Whether or not the group claims the event – and there is a lot of analysis over when it does and when it doesn’t – there is no question that in the minds of most people IS is the world’s […]

It seems like a no-brainer.  If we could identify the factors that lead someone to embrace terrorism, or at the very least point to those vulnerable to terrorist messaging and recruitment, we could achieve several things.  We could identify individuals who exhibit those risk factors and get them help before it is too late.  Or […]

The last few years have seen an incredible spike in the creation and deployment of Countering Violent Extremism (or CVE) programmes around the world.  Although the meaning of the term is still developing, CVE generally is used to cover any effort that aims at stopping violent extremism (or radicalisation) from beginning or undo it once […]

There is a very important distinction in most Western courts of law between actus reus and mens rea, Latin for respectively, guilty act and guilty mind (more or less).   We  have decided that in order for a crime to have been committed, the alleged guilty party had to have the intent to commit that […]

The hostage taking and massacre at a Dhaka cafe in Bangladesh is over.  More than 20 innocent people were slaughtered by Islamist extremists, although exactly which terrorists were behind this heinous act is still unclear (Islamic State has claimed responsibility but the Bangladeshi government vehemently, and incredulously, denies IS has a presence in the country). […]

I swore to myself I would never argue with anything that comes out of the mouth of aspiring Clown in Chief Donald Trump for fear of lowering myself to whatever abyss he calls home, but here I am doing exactly that.  Thankfully, since I am really only keen to talk about terrorism in this blog, […]

When it comes to what to do to counter terrorism there is an easy answer. Find people radicalised to violence, follow them, arrest them before they strike, put them on trial, incarcerate them and throw away the key.  What’s not to like about this approach?  No one gets hurt, do they? Indeed, this method does […]

In the run-up to the British referendum on whether to stay in the European Union or not there were many dire predictions on how a leave vote would effect the United Kingdom.  We are already seeing significant economic fallout and the weeks and months to follow will likely bring more negative consequences in the political […]

We in the West think highly of democracy and for good reason.  As Winston Churchill once said: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”  It is not that bad of course and democracy remains the best current option we have for ensuring freedom and security.  We like it so much […]