Borealis Threat & Risk Consulting
In this podcast, retired Canadian intelligence analyst Phil Gurski discusses the subject of terrorism: what it is (and isn’t), trends, developments and more. Author of six books on terrorism, Phil is not shy to wade into controversial matters and provide his perspective honed from more than three decades in intelligence.
Episode 279 – What, another ISIS affiliate in Africa? Mozambique achieved independence in 1974 after a long civil war with its former Portuguese colonial power. Like most African nations, however, peace and stability are not that common in the post European power era. The southeastern country has been facing down a jihadi movement affiliated with […]
Episode 278 – The spate of attacks on Jewish targets in the West is most definitely on the rise with no end in sight You would have to be asleep over the past year and a half to not notice a precipitous rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the West. Some of this is tied to […]
Episode 277 – Forty years after the Air India attack and a few years after an Indian killing of a Sikh extremist on Canadian soil Everyone remembers 9/11. That single event has become a ‘where were you when’ moment in human history. Few know, however, that prior to that cataclysmic attack, a bomb on an […]
Episode 276 – How do you adequately police the world’s second largest country? Federal police. Provincial police. Regional Police. Municipal police. A real dog’s breakfast in Canada. Does in work? Does it need a re-think? Phil talks with a former RCMP officer and municipal police chief about these issues. Spotify link About my guest Vern […]
Episode 275 – In our search for what drives terrorism have we found a new link? Of all the frustrations in life red tape has to be one of the worst. Whether it is renewing your driver’s licence or registering your dog, being faced with bad bureaucracy is frustrating for sure. But can it actually […]
Episode 274 – What did – and does – Israel get wrong about Gaza and the West Bank? Israel has faced an existential threat for decades from jihadis in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon, as well as further abroad. The country’s security intelligence and military communities are amongst the best and one would assume […]
Episode 273 – Once an AQ jihadi always an AQ jihadi? The world rightly celebrated the ouster of Bashar al Assad, the brutal Syrian dictator, in December 2024 when a motley crew, including jihadis, took the capital, Damascus. Syrians who had engaged their autocrats in a bid for freedom since the Arab Spring, were finally […]
Episode 272 – What will the German government decision to label the AfD backfire? That extremist/terrorist groups can form political parties – and in some cases actually govern – is not unknown. Hamas ran Gaza until the Israeli invasion in October 2023, Hizballah controlled much of southern Lebanon and even ISIS created a so-called ‘Caliphate’ […]
Episode 271 – Why practitioners can make good writers Yes I am biased – as a 32-year veteran of intelligence – but I do think (ex)-practitioners have a lot to say when it comes to national security and international affairs. Those who were ‘at the coalface’ have a lot to say and have the advantage […]
Episode 270 – Is drone warfare changing how we see armed conflict? If the war in Ukraine is teaching us anything it is that drones – both surveillance ones as well as those that fire missiles at the enemy – are changing the landscape. Their small size, cheapness (i.e. they are not expensive to build […]