Search: “Islamic State”

As I write this blog events in Turkey are still unfolding.  Whether we call this a successful coup or an attempted coup is not relevant to what I hope to convey here.  Suffice to say that a tactic the Turkish military used all too frequently in the 20th century appears to have resurfaced. I have […]

If I have said it once, I have said it many times: it is best to wait for information to come in before issuing “definitive”analyses of what has just happened.  The tragic attack in Nice may be over but it is far too soon to give in to speculation about who was responsible and why […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]