About the Series

2020 marked the conclusion of another difficult decade for Europe in terms of terrorism and radicalisation. Attacks in France, Germany and Austria in particular showed the dynamic nature of the threat faced from numerous different ideologies, as well as ingrained societal tensions which appear to be feeding different parts of the threat. In order to understand how this threat is going to set the picture for the foreseeable future, ICPVTR is holding a series of events during the year to explore different aspects of the evolving threat picture in Europe. From the extreme right, single-issue extremists, to more traditional violent Islamists or the ever-present residual extreme-left, this series will explore what the European threat picture looks like, how it might evolve in the future and its salience for regional dynamics elsewhere. 

Abstract

In the first webinar of the series, Suzanne Raine will discuss the broader terrorism threat picture trying to understand the trends from across ideologies that are likely to define what threats security forces around the world will be facing in the next decade. Using Europe as a particular focus, she will look at how the various strands of threats have coalesced (the extreme right wing, the spread of disinformation, and the growing traction of conspiracy theories, and so on), while residual threats from violent Islamist groups continue to exist in environments where none of the root causes have been resolved. This atop a growing list of issues at home including returnees from Syria/Iraq, the growing influence of online radicalisation and the growing cohort of terrorism offenders coming out of prison with little evidence of de-radicalisation having taken place. Ms Raine will sketch out this picture, while offering a broad analysis of what priority threats she thinks security officials should focus on in counter-terrorism terms going forwards.

Suzanne Raine is an Affiliate Lecturer at the Centre for Geopolitics at Cambridge University, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and Stop The Traffik, an NGO which works to stop people-trafficking.  She served for 24 years in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on foreign policy and national security issues.  This included postings in Poland, Iraq and Pakistan.  She specialised in counter-terrorism, holding a number of senior domestic appointments including Head of the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre from 2015-2017.  She was also a senior member of the UK government assessment community.