The PRC has a problem with extremism. Part of their challenge lies in Tibet where Buddhist monks self-immolate in the streets. I will set aside why monks are choosing to burn themselves to death (which I think we all can agree is an extreme act) in this blog, mostly because they are not engaging in […]
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The terrorist view from Bangladesh
Sometimes small things point to large changes. During my short visit last week to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, I had the opportunity to sit down with one of that country’s leading political scientists to talk about terrorism and PVE – i.e. Preventing Violent Extremism, the newest iteration of CVE – Countering Violent Extremism. We […]
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How Guantanamo keeps giving back
I think we can all agree – well except maybe some in the new Trump administration – that the US decision to use the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba to hold terrorist suspects extra-judicially was a particularly bad idea. Not only did the practice sully the US image as the protector of democratic values, it […]
Humans are really good at categorisation. Babies learn pretty quickly how to group different objects into sets depending on a variety of criteria – colour, texture, function, etc. This ability may actually be ingrained in us and it is believed to play a huge role in language acquisition. But sometimes our knack for categorising things […]
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Why do terrorists hate the Ahmadis?
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 […]
What should we do with returning “foreign fighters”? A number of recent terrorist attacks were committed by young men and women who had radicalized, went to train with IS in the Middle East, then returned to their home country to commit acts of violence. In this text, Phil Gurski examines why some people decide to […]
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How not to win the “war on terror”
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. […]
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 […]
If there is one thing that is true about all Islamist extremist groups is that they are full of hate. They hate other Muslims. They hate the Shia. They hate the Sufis. They hate non-Muslims. They hate LGBT. They hate choice. They hate everything in their warped world view. Hate. Hate. Hate. One other thing […]