In between Brussels and Antwerp, two cities with many foreign fighters, lies Mechelen – with zero foreign fighters.
Aleksandra Eriksson (EUObserver)Today’s new terrorists were radical before they were religious
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The recent bombings in Europe are being perpetrated by a new generation of terrorists who are upending our previous understanding of what motivates such people and how to find and stop them. Today’s terrorists are not religious extremists who became radicals but rather radicals who became religious extremists. The difference is crucial.
Fareed Zakaria (Washington Post)Brussels attacks: last gasp of Isis terror in Europe, or sign of growing threat?
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How did Belgium live last week – and how will it live the aftermath of 22 March ?
Emma Graham-Harrison (The Guardian)Understanding terrorism is the only way to defeat it
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The terrorist attacks in Brussels, where at least 31 people were killed earlier this week, has forced us once again to comprehend the almost incomprehensible. Why do people turn their backs on the relative comfort of their lives to join the brutal organisation that is Islamic State and commit terrorist offences and mass murder?
(The Australian)Facing the fourth foreign fighters wave. What drives Europeans to Syria, and to Islamic state?
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Thousands of young Europeans have gone to fight in the Levant, the fourth wave of jihadi foreign fighters since the 1980s. Their decision is rooted in a “no future” subculture and boosted by the conviction that by traveling to Syria they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Rik Coolsaet (Egmont Paper)‘Jihad by family’: Why are terrorist cells often made up of brothers?
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Use of the term “brother” among extremists is frequently quite literal: terrorist recruitment is highly social, with parents and siblings often joining forces
Jason Burke (The Guardian)Jihad as a lifestyle
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Why do Europeans travel to a country they do not know, in a culture they are not familiar with, and where a language is spoken that they do not understand ?
Rik Coolsaet (Freedom from fear)What drives Europeans to Syria, and to IS. Insights from the Belgian case
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A year ago, IS announced the establishment of a new “caliphate”. Time to reflect. The way the journeys to Syria are framed, profoundly shapes policy and media reactions.
Rik Coolsaet (Egmont Paper 75)Will the foreign fighters issue ever end ?
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Each day, news outlets carry stories about people trying to join IS (ISIS). Neighboring countries are unquestionably the most affected. But Belgium faces the same challenge. Month after month, almost a dozen people still leave for Syria. Why, and how to dissuade them from being drawn into such a journey ?
Rik Coolsaet (European Geostrategy)Belgian Jihadism
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How particular was this week’s foiled terrorist plot in Belgium ? And why has this country the highest per capita number of foreign fighters ?
Owen Bennett-Jones (BBC Newshour)Europe: Reinforcing Existing Trends
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The main impact of 9/11 on European societies has been to crystallize the pre-existing debate on immigration around the culturalist paradigm. In mainstream thinking the culture of the immigrants came to be seen as the major obstacle to their integration.
Rik Coolsaet (Mohammed Ayoob, Assessing the War on Terror)Mali: Another European Intervention without the E.U. ?
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As French forces are engaged in combat operations in Mali, even belated EU involvement remains crucial, to ensure that the intervention fits in with the political end-state that the EU rightly pursues.
Rik Coolsaet, Sven Biscop, Jo Coelmont (Security Policy Brief Egmont Institute)