Germany’s Security Agenda: Navigating the Challenges of Modern Terrorism
German authorities are facing a “complex threat situation.” Some observers caution against exaggerating the danger. A handful of remote, but high-profile incidents have put politically motivated crime increased on Germany’s security agenda. The renewed worries follow a German tourist getting stabbed to death in Paris allegedly by a man with a record of criminal behaviour, […]
Exercise Spring Resolve: Strengthening Counter-Terrorism Coordination in the UK
In January 2024 a combination of emergency services and police forces experimented with their joint response to a string of simulated terrorist incidents. North Yorkshire’s police, fire and rescue, and ambulance service merged with counter-terrorism police and York Minster police. The entire exercise was supervised by the national counter-terrorism security office. The operation came in […]
Operation Sentinel: The French Army’s Shield Against Terrorism
Operation Sentinel is an operation of the French Army deployed following the episodes Of January 9, 2015, to encounter the terrorists threatening the national territory and defend the territory’s sensitive “points”. It was fortified during the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Île-de-France. From 2015 to 2021, Operation Sentinel witnessed a succession of nearly 225,000 […]
Strengthening Security: The Role of the EU Centre in Counterterrorism Efforts
In the past years, terrorism has remained a significant threat to security in the European Union. The European Commission is dedicated to ensuring that victims of terrorism can completely rely on their rights independently of where in the EU a terrorist attack takes place. The EU assumed a solid set of rules on victims’ rights […]
Greece Standing Firm Against Domestic Terrorism
The police’s Anti-Terrorism Division launched raids in different parts of Athens and detained eight suspects in association with a terrorist group that has claimed responsibility for three bomb attacks and has levelled threats against judges. According to police, another two individuals who are penitentiary inmates are also being investigated in the same case. During the […]
FSB’s Counter-Terrorism Operation in Ingushetia
On March 2nd, 2024, FSB special forces executed an operation in the city of Karabulak in Ingushetia to arrest/destroy a group of six people indicted of being connected with a terrorist organisation. According to the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK), when FSB special forces endeavoured to arrest these people, they opened fire at law enforcement […]
Europe’s Vigilance: Countering Terrorism in the Wake of Recent Threats
Terrorist attacks across the world demonstrate the extent of the unabated threat citizens face from all states of violent extremism. The terrorist threat is manifold and geographically diffuse. It remains influential, complex, and unpredictable. In March 2024, Security services in Austria and Bosnia captured Afghan and Syrian nationals, some acting as refugees, who had stocks […]
Hybrid Tactics and NATO’s Resilience: Safeguarding Alliance Security
NATO partners face threats and challenges from both state and non-state players who use hybrid moves to target political institutions, affect public opinion and damage the security of NATO citizens. Hybrid methods of warfare – such as propaganda, fraud, sabotage and other non-military tactics – have long been employed to destabilise adversaries. What is new […]
The Turning Point: Belgium’s Response to the 2016 Terrorist Attacks
Belgium backs and promotes a comprehensive and inclusive strategy towards combating terrorism and attaches significant importance to achieving the correct balance between prevention and repression and reintegration and rehabilitation. On 22 March 2016, two combined terrorist attacks in and close to Brussels, Belgium, were undertaken by the Islamic State. Two suicide bombers exploded bombs at […]
Pakistan’s Crackdown on Terrorism Post-Peshawar Attack
On 16 December 2014, six terrorists affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan executed a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. The terrorists, all of whom were foreign residents, including one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghans penetrated the school and unlocked shooting at school staff and children, massacring 149 […]