The unrest in Syria has quickly spiralled beyond a sectarian civil war and into a regional crisis.
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Julie Lenarz and Michael Miner February 27, 2014 Iraq and Syria, Middle East and North Africa
The unrest in Syria has quickly spiralled beyond a sectarian civil war and into a regional crisis.
Read More »Simon Schofield January 21, 2014 Security and Defence
One is struck with an unsettling scenario when watching Skyfall: an unseen invader reaches into your infrastructure from afar and manages to cause untold chaos and carnage whilst sat behind his desk sipping Red Bull. Cyber-terrorism is yet to approach its zenith, but that time is not very far away.
Read More »Philip Cane and Simon Schofield October 20, 2013 Security and Defence, Sub-Saharan Africa
The attack on Nairobi demonstrated that al Shabaab has peaked and is attempting to reverse its seemingly unstoppable decline.
Read More »Michelle McKenna October 18, 2013 Global Governance and Human Rights, Sub-Saharan Africa
On Saturday 12th October, the African Union held an extraordinary session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to consider Africa’s relationship with the International Criminal Court. The outcome of that debate was a request from the African Union to the Security Council to defer the cases of Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto
Read More »Rob Marchant October 11, 2013 Middle East and North Africa, Opinion
When will we learn that, where Islamism is involved, we have to get involved early and not late? We may well look back in years to come and ask ourselves why it was that we managed to lose on two fronts; not only that we let thousands of civilians be massacred, but also created the ideal conditions for a new generation of terrorists to boot.
Read More »Simon Schofield October 2, 2013 Security and Defence, Sub-Saharan Africa
Whilst al-Qaeda has never been a particularly centralised organisation, in recent years it appears to have shifted from a model of a centralised franchise, which supports other groups to carry out attacks in their name, to a fractured structure of regional groups, each with its own internal politics and personal missions.
Read More »Ghaffar Hussain September 25, 2013 HSC in the Media
Following the Westgate Mall terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya, the HSC’s senior fellow and radicalisation expert Ghaffar Hussain appeared on Sky News and talked about al-Shabaab’s motives, strategies and recruitment processes. To approach members of the HSC for similar expert ...
Read More »Ghaffar Hussain September 14, 2013 Middle East and North Africa, Security and Defence
Whilst it is widely agreed that the Arab Spring will have an enormous impact on al-Qaeda and the worldwide jihadist movement, there is no consensus on what this impact will look like. On one hand, there are optimists like Fawaz Gerges and Peter Bergen who think the Arab-Spring is a death blow to the jihadist movement.
Read More »Simon Schofield September 11, 2013 Security and Defence, The Americas
On this, the twelfth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre, the wounds are still fresh and raw in much of the West. Images of men and women diving to their deaths, rather than be crushed and of emergency personnel dying to save those inside the towers still haunt almost aspect of Western politics.
Read More »Ghaffar Hussain August 29, 2013 Asia and Pacific, Security and Defence
Many filed Pakistan under 'basket case' years ago and stopped trying to rationalise developments in that country. Sadly, for others, that isn't an option. What is taking place is tragic, absurd, and frightening.
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