Belgium has earned a bad name in counterterrorism circles, with critics charging that its security services did too little too late when it came to disrupting the Islamic State and other groups on Belgian soil. The tragic terrorist attack in Brussels two years ago, however, marked a turning point.
Thomas Renard, Rik Coolsaet (Lawfare)Studie zu IS-Rückkehrern
Forscher haben die Rückreisewelle aus den IS-Gebieten nach Europa analysiert. Sie machen deutlich, wie schwierig die Rückkehrer durch die Sicherheitsbehörden zu beurteilen sind – halten aber auch eine positive Botschaft bereit.
Florian Flade (Die Welt)Top Paris Attacks Suspect on Trial for First Time, in Brussels
The four-day trial of 28-year-old Salah Abdeslam will not deal directly with the November 2015 attacks that killed 130 people around Paris, but rather a shootout with police months later.
Lisa Bryant (Voice of America)Anticipating the Post-ISIS Landscape in Europe
New York was once again the scene of a terrorist attack. A truck plowed down a crowded bike path in Lower Manhattan. A handwritten message near the truck indicated the driver’s allegiance to the Islamic State: “It will endure forever,” the note said. But will it?
Rik Coolsaet (Clingendael Spectator)‘All Radicalisation is Local.’ The genesis and drawbacks of an elusive concept
The concept of “radicalisation” is now firmly entrenched at the heart of European and global counterterrorism. But 12 years after its introduction, it remains ill-defined, complex and controversial. It is thus time to assess its added value.
Rik Coolsaet (Egmont Paper)Mechelen: the Belgian city with no foreign fighters
In between Brussels and Antwerp, two cities with many foreign fighters, lies Mechelen – with zero foreign fighters.
Aleksandra Eriksson (EUObserver)Brussels attacks: last gasp of Isis terror in Europe, or sign of growing threat?
How did Belgium live last week – and how will it live the aftermath of 22 March ?
Emma Graham-Harrison (The Guardian)It is no surprise siblings with past crimes carried out attacks on Brussels
The el-Bakraoui brothers highlight the links between terrorism and criminal records, and the strength of family in Islamic militancy.
Jason Burke (The Guardian)New ISIS recruits have deep criminal roots
European officials say the perpetrators in the most recent attacks appear to be part of a new wave of recruits that are not “radical Islamists†but rather “Islamized radicals†— people from society’s outer margins who feel at home with a terrorist organization noted for beheading hostages and executing unarmed civilians.
Joby Warrick, Gregg Miller (Washington Post)Brussels terrorist attacks: why the heart of Europe?
Brussels is home to an increasing number of angry and alienated young men who feel they are not treated as equal citizens and have no future.
David Wroe (Brisbane Times)Jihadi Cool: Belgium’s New Extremists are as Shallow as They are Deadly
These European attackers are not like the Al-Qaeda members of old—the radicalized adherents to fundamentalist Islam. Many of these new age killers were small children when the World Trade Center fell in 2001 and have spent much of their lives watching major wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Syria.
Kurt Eichenwald (Newsweek)Facing the fourth foreign fighters wave. What drives Europeans to Syria, and to Islamic state?
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)