Analysts believe there will be more security alerts and cancellations of major events after Paris attacks.
Matthew Taylor (The Guardian)The story of a radicalisation: ‘I was not thinking my thoughts. I was not myself’
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Maysa, a teenager from Brussels, was a music fan and a “ray of sunshine” at school. But a chance encounter on social media had changed her within a year.
Jason Burke (The Guardian)Jihadist Recruits: Misfits, Not Pious Conservatives
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In the wake of the Paris attacks and the security scare in Belgium, European governments and radicalization experts are once again struggling to understand what is driving young European Muslims to join the Islamic State and carry out savage acts in their own countries, against fellow nationals
Jamie Dettmer (Voice of America)Fixing Europe’s Security Crisis Will Need More Than Just Money
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The failure of Belgian authorities to keep tabs on the men who plotted this month’s massacre has thrown into relief the gaps in the European Union’s security apparatus.
Caroline Alexander, Gaspard Sebag (Bloomberg)Deep anxiety pervades Brussels as lockdown continues
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With no end in sight to the unprecedented crackdown in the Belgian capital, its economic, social and political costs are rising … and the Belgians react with cat posts…
Jason Burke (The Guardian)‘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)How Belgium became a breeding ground for international terrorists
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Until now, European security services largely ignored the growth of extremism in the Muslim neighbourhoods of Brussels
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)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)