Episode 247 – Is it time to yet to celebrate a new beginning in Syria?
Any time a brutal dictator is ousted is a good day for the world as there are far too many still in power in the world. The Assads, father and son, were particularly inhumane, using, among other tools, chemical weapons against their own people. Their disappearance from the scene – Bashar al Assad has fled to a fellow autocrat in Moscow (Vladimir Putin) – does lead to a lot more questions however. Who will take power, and could Syria become a terrorist haven under Hizb-ut Tahrir Al Sham? Borealis talks with Elliot Tepper on what we know so far and what may unfold in the months to come.
About my guest
Dr. Tepper is a veteran professor of comparative politics and international relations at Carleton University where he has taught courses on Asia, development, nationalism, and international affairs. He regularly provides media commentary at home and abroad on a wide range of topics, providing context and deep background to the news stories of the day. His current academic titles include: Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs; Senior Research Fellow at NPSIA’s Centre for Security and Defence Studies; Research Fellow, Conference of Defence Associations Institute; and Adjunct Research Professor at both Royal Roads University and in his long-time home, the Department of Political Science, Carleton University. He is a member of MLI’s Research Advisory Board.
Elliot Tepper | Macdonald-Laurier Institute
Canadian Intelligence Eh
In a world of multiple voices and opinions it can be very hard to know where to turn. One choice is to look to those who actually worked in counter-terrorism in the national security world.
In these half-hour podcasts, 30-year Canadian intelligence veteran Phil Gurski is joined by a fascinating array of individuals with something meaningful to say about these issues as they provide insight into what they mean and what we need to do about them.
About Phil Gurski
Phil worked as a senior strategic analyst at CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) from 2001-2015, specializing in violent Islamist-inspired homegrown terrorism and radicalisation. From 1983 to 2001 he was employed as a senior multilingual analyst at Communications Security Establishment (CSE – Canada’s signals intelligence agency), specialising in the Middle East. He also served as senior special advisor in the National Security Directorate at Public Safety Canada from 2013, focusing on community outreach and training on radicalisation to violence, until his retirement from the civil service in May 2015, and as consultant for the Ontario Provincial Police’s Anti-Terrorism Section (PATS) from May to October 2015.
He was the Director of Security and Intelligence at the SecDev Group from June 2018 to July 2019 and the Director of the National Security Programme at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute from 2020-2022. He has also taught on national security issues at George Brown College, the University of Ottawa and Georgian College. Mr. Gurski has presented on violent Islamist-inspired and other forms of terrorism and radicalisation across Canada and around the world and is actively sought by Canadian and international media on national security and intelligence issues. He has written hundreds of op-eds on these matters for several Canadian media since 2016
He writes at www.borealisthreatandrisk.com.
He is the author of The Threat from Within: Recognizing Al Qaeda-inspired Radicalization and Terrorism in the West (Rowman and Littlefield 2015) Western Foreign Fighters: The Threat to Homeland and International Security (Rowman and Littlefield 2017), The Lesser Jihads: Taking the Islamist fight to the world (Rowman and Littlefield 2017), An end to the ‘War on Terrorism (Rowman and Littlefield 2018), When Religion Kills: How Extremist Justify Violence Through Faith (Lynne Rienner 2019), The Peaceable Kingdom? A history of terrorism in Canada from Confederation to the present (self-published: 2021, republished by Double Dagger in 2022) and the forthcoming The Fenian Brotherhood: Canada’s first terrorist threat? (Double Dagger: fall 2025). He regularly blogs and podcasts (Canadian Intelligence Eh!), and tweets (@borealissaves) on terrorism and intelligence matters.
