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Perspectives

When to call a violent attack a terrorist incident

The US has suffered through two scary incidents in the past 24 hours.  Fortunately, as of the time of writing, no one has died in either event.  A man dressed in a security uniform knifed 8 people at a mall in central Minnesota.  There are reports he talked of Allah and asked at least one […]

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Perspectives

What are “Canadian values” and what does this have to do with terrorism?

A very odd thing happened yesterday in Canada.  A poll appeared to show that a majority of my fellow citizens support the screening of potential immigrants by giving them some sort of “values test“, in keeping with a suggestion by a wannabe Conservative leadership candidate, Kellie Leitch.  Canada thus appears to be following in the […]

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Perspectives

Do Canadian authorities have enough counter terrorism tools?

Today in the small southwestern Ontario town of Strathroy a young man known to police for having terrorist connections was killed by security forces after he appeared to have exploded a device and had another in  his possession.  The victim, Aaron Driver, had been arrested in June 2015 after expressing support for Islamic State (IS) […]

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Perspectives

Should the media publish the photos of terrorists

Media have one important job to do: report the news.  Sometimes they also bring in people to help us understand the news and speculate on what it means.  At times outside experts contribute much needed analysis and insight and at others provide little of value to the issue at hand. In reporting the news there […]

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Perspectives

It takes a village to raise a terrorist, and a village to stop one

In 1996 then First Lady Hillary Clinton published a book It Takes a Village which was essentially a tome on how to raise children.  The main argument centred on the responsibilities that everyone has to contribute to the shaping of productive, well-adjusted citizens and was a bit of a call to an earlier age where this […]

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Perspectives

The perils of “instant analysis”

Today (July 22) marks the fifth anniversary of one of the darkest days in Norway’s history.  Anders Behring Breivik set off bombs outside a government complex in Oslo, killing 8, then traveled to an island called Utoya where a young person’s political function was occurring and massacred 69 people. Today also marks the fifth anniversary […]

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Perspectives

Terrorism and terminology

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, […]

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Perspectives

The implications of Brexit for national security

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 […]

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Perspectives

When foreign fighters are a good thing?

When we write and talk about foreign fighters we are normally referring to the phenomenon of outsiders who travel to engage in combat in a land that is not theirs.  More specifically, at least these days, we are focused on those joining up with terrorist groups like Islamic State and Jabhat al Nusra which are […]

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Perspectives

Terrorism and free speech

The state of freedom of speech seems to be a hot topic these days.  The Economist devoted a recent cover story to it.  UK scholar Timothy Garton Ash has just written a critically acclaimed book on the issue.  Every day we read of new assaults on journalists and activists in China, Russia, Egypt (two Al […]