In recent months both Theresa May and Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, have made significant interventions in the debate on counter extremism. In this blog, Bob Hindle of Manchester Institute of Education, explains why a new Prevent strategy is needed, and how that might develop. Policy must consider wider educational responsibilities such as strengthening community […]
The ethics of British intervention in Syria
On Wednesday, the House of Commons debated for ten hours about whether the UK should intervene in Syria against ISIS. Here James Pattison explores the ethics of their decision. Numerous MPs stood up and offered their impassioned views. But most of these were oddly unstructured and badly reasoned, and failed to take into account glaringly […]
The quest for solidarity in a fractured Europe II – in the aftermath of ‘Paris’
A few months ago Tanja Müller wrote a blog on the failed quest for solidarity in Europe in light of the movement of refugees and migrants. Here she follows that up with another in the wake of devastating Paris attacks. The main response in too many countries then – and I wrote the previous blog […]
Notes on the attacks in Paris
Here Colin Talbot reacts to the terrorist atrocities in Paris. These are just some thoughts about the attacks in Paris. They’re not a thorough narrative or analysis, but things that have occurred to me as I have followed the story over the weekend. WHAT SORT OF ATTACK? It was clearly a highly organized, well-equipped and […]
Curbing crude oil theft
Omonigho Otanocho looks at the little known problem of crude oil theft, which costs lives and contributes to global terrorism. Crude oil theft, otherwise known as ‘illegal crude oil bunkering’, is global challenge especially for oil exporting countries like Nigeria. According to reports available at the Chatham House website, “Nigerian crude oil is being stolen […]
Challenging the myth of religious violence
Religion is being wrongly blamed for ‘driving’ global violence, but it is moderate religious voices who are best positioned to address the problem, argues Professor Kate Cooper. The recently published Global Terrorism Index 2013 is being reported as confirming that “religion has become the main driver of terrorism”, surpassing nationalist and other motives. But there […]
Can we ever estimate how many British Muslims will become Islamic extremists?
That the UK’s counter-terrorism policy relies on flawed polls and survey questions for estimating the number of likely terrorists is truly scary, argues Dr Maria Sobolewska. Last week the media turned once again to trying to quantify how many young British Muslims are wannabe terrorists, travelling to Syria and Iraq and joining the Islamic terrorists […]