Eurasia Review
02 April 2016
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- Europe Post-Brussels: How it Should Respond to Islamic State – Analysis
Europe Post-Brussels: How it Should Respond to Islamic State – Analysis
With about 5000 European fighters in Syria and Iraq, the self-styled Islamic State is bound to strike Europe again. The law enforcement-centric European response is inadequate to manage the threat.
The terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 and Brussels in March 2016 show the magnitude, scale and severity of the threat to Europe. Despite the range of measures taken in counter-response, two large-scale attacks within five months exemplified Europe’s challenges in cooperation and collaboration to meet the common threat.
While the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as IS, had attracted about 5,000 Europeans to its ranks, the targets are both in the Middle East and Europe. Although directed from IS Central, Belgium was the launching pad for the attacks in Paris, which killed 130 and maimed and injured some 370. The attacks in Brussels killed 30 and injured 340, all civilians. Notwithstanding the coordinated nature of the attacks and the widespread severity of the threat to their countries, the European governments have been reluctant to respond decisively while the bulk of Europeans were unwilling to change their way of life.
… Rohan Gunaratna is Professor of Security Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technology University, Singapore and Head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at RSIS. The author of “Inside al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror” (University of Columbia Press), Gunaratna interviewed terrorists and insurgents in conflict zones.
GPO / ICPVTR / Online
Last updated on 04/04/2016
