Search: “violent extremism”

If there is one shining light in the aftermath of the Arab Spring it is Tunisia.  Not that the competition is very tough.  Egypt went from an elected Muslim Brotherhood (MB) government to a military one under General Sisi.  Bahrain’s short-lived revolution is no more.  And as for Syria, well I really don’t think I […]

Years ago I attended an International Studies Association (ISA) conference in New Orleans and found myself in a small room at a hotel listening to a former CIA guy give a talk on something or other under the rubric of the ‘Intelligence Studies Group’ (or something to that effect).  I do not remember what his […]

Scientists have made great progress in eradicating diseases that once maimed or killed millions of people.  Think of smallpox.  Or polio, which a few years ago was on the verge of disappearance though state instability and war have allowed it to cling to life.  The reason why these scourges were defeated (apparently there is a […]

I am not going to jump on the bandwagon and categorically call what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia yesterday an act of domestic terrorism.  At least not yet.  There are still too many unknowns.  All we know so far is that James Alex Fields, a 20-year old man from Ohio, left his home to join an […]

One criticism that has been leveled a lot in the post 9/11 period is that governments, through their security intelligence and law enforcement agencies, has run roughshod over civil rights and what should be seen as legitimate political activity, and criminalised some behaviours all in an effort to prevent terrorism from occurring.  The timeline on […]

Knowing that what you are doing is the right thing is important.  There are all kinds of ideas in all kinds of fields of study and practice but they are not all equal.  Some are clearly better than others.  One way of telling which ones are which is to measure what they purport to do. […]

Here we go again. The fact that Alexandre Bissonnette was able to get a gun, walk into a mosque, slaughter innocent people and not be detected is a failure. On whom? On everyone – CSIS, the RCMP, la police de la ville de Quebec, the Surete, the government of Canada, average Canadians for not standing […]

Thank God for reporters like Stewart Bell of the National Post.  Now that I am outside the realm of state secrets I have come to rely on people like him to do the investigative legwork that keeps me informed on what is going on in the world of terrorism, both in Canada and abroad.  Just […]

I have just returned from Oslo where I was thrilled to catch up with one of my favourite terrorist experts, Thomas Hegghammer.  Thomas and his colleagues at the FFI – Norway’s Defence Research Establishment – have published some amazing work over the last decade or so and I have personally learned much from them. When […]

Soon to be former US President Barack Obama once famously said with respect to foreign policy “don’t do stupid shit (or” stuff” depending on your sensitivity to salty language)”.  That maxim could just have easily been applied to domestic policy.  And it is something that incoming president Donald Trump might want to pay attention to. […]