Publications

Senior members of the security establishment have claimed that the current terrorist threat in Europe is unprecedented. This essay examines this claim against the background of the waves of terrorism that have plagued Europe over the last five decades, and specifically in light of the nature of the current threat and the response that it demands. The terrorist threat in Europe in recent years has focused primarily on Muslim Europeans and converts to Islam. These perpetrators are usually veterans of the wars in Iraq and Syria who joined the ranks of the Islamic State and internalized its ideas and methods. Also participating in this activity are Europeans who did not emigrate to the Middle East to take part in the fighting, along with immigrants who operate under the inspiration of the Islamic State. The essay presents the challenges currently facing Europe’s leaders and its security services and the ways in which they must respond to the real and potential threats that exist, in view of the threats by Salafi jihadist organizations, particularly the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, to flood Europe “with a river of blood.”