The attack on Nairobi demonstrated that al Shabaab has peaked and is attempting to reverse its seemingly unstoppable decline.

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.

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 ...