The recent unveiling of major upgrade plans to Singapore’s counter-terrorism efforts by the Ministry of Home Affairs has provided much substance for Singaporeans to think about, as societies around the world gear themselves up to manage the terror threat the best way they can.

As Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam’s speech at the Home Team Leaders’ Forum last month reminded Singaporeans, the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group is indeed monstrous and “qualitatively different” from that posed by groups such as Al-Qaeda.

Unlike for the Al-Qaeda terrorist, the lowest-common-denominator weapon for the ISIS perpetrator, when stripped of other means, is actually a knife. As Mr Shanmugam said: “(Terrorists) have begun to use knives, machetes – items that are easily accessible to people.”

… The writer is research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.