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 317 – Why is the Sahel region of Africa so vulnerable to terrorism? Not many people, I wager, follow events in Africa, let alone the Sahel, the band that spreads from Mauritania in the west to Sudan in the east. And yet this region is rapidly becoming terrorism central globally as groups aligned with […]
Episode 316 – Is Sikh terrorism a thing of the past and are Canadian Sikhs now subject to Indian state violence? At one point in the not too distant past Sikh Canadians were tarred with the terrorism brush. After all, the bombing of an Air India flight in 1985 in which 329 people – mostly […]
Episode 315 – What do bucks and bangs have in common? When most people think of national security they think of things like terrorism, espionage, sabotage and transnational repression. I doubt that economics comes to mind. But what if any is the link between a nation’s economy and national security? I talk to a specialist […]
Episode 314 – Why does the world not punish China for cultural genocide? If we look at how many nations put down – or in the worst case scenario kill – ethnic minorities, the list would be a long one. ISIS and the Yazidis. The Ottomans and the Armenians. The Serbs and Bosnian Muslims. And […]
Episode 313 – Why can we not define hate speech more succinctly? As Taylor Swift – and no I am NOT a ‘Swiftie’ – once sang “Haters gotta hate”. Hate crimes certainly appear to be on the rise in many parts of the Western world and has a lot of people worried. Unfortunately, the definition […]
Episode 312 – National security is not a game, but can gaming help? Did you play Stratego or Risk as a kid? War games have a long history. Nowadays, modern militaries put a lot of time and money into war simulations. How do these work and what effect do they have? I talk with Rex […]
Episode 311 – What should the world worry about in the new year when it comes to conflict? That conflict is part of the human condition goes without saying. What is challenging is determining what kinds of information to rely on when thinking about ongoing conflicts. After all, there is a lot of disinformation and […]
Episode 309 – If you are going to kill terrorists, send in the best Fighting terrorism is complicated. My background is in security intelligence and I know a lot about what goes into a terrorism investigation. When it comes to the military, things are different. On occasions, soldiers need to use lethal force to kill […]
Episode 309 – Is this the end of the ayatollahs? It is hard not to be riveted to our screens with what is transpiring in Iran right now. Near a half century of rule by Shia fundamentalists appears, at least to some, to on the brink of collapse as mass demonstrations have led to hundreds […]
Episode 308 – Do words make worlds? Not surprisingly, terrorism is a very emotive term. When acts take place, the media will often use words and language that vary widely in scope. Some say that we should eschew some vocabulary that may or not be inaccurate, or lead to bias. How do we manage this […]