From my 'In Box'.
Dear friends,
Please find a link to our latest research paper: Foreign Terrorist Attacks by the Islamic State, 2002-2016.
http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/FINAL-Foreign-Terrorist-Attacks-Paper.pdf
The paper documents the foreign attacks conducted and attempted by the Islamic State and assesses how directly the organisation was involved in these atrocities.
In light of yesterday's terrorist attack in London, now claimed by the Islamic State, the report's key findings are especially notable:
· In the majority of cases, terrorism in the name of the Islamic State outside of its so-called caliphate was either controlled or guided by the organization;
· Very rarely, just 15% of cases, were Islamic State attacks "lone wolf" attacks. Even when the Islamic State was not directly guiding or directing plots, terrorists were often supported by a network.
Other important findings were:
· External attacks by the Islamic State movement date back to at least 2002 - the organisation having been founded in 1999 - and are therefore not solely a response to the loss of territory as its so-called caliphate is rolled back;
· At least 34 states have been attacked by the Islamic State, with the top five most victimised countries being: France, the United States, Germany, Turkey and Australia;
· The frequency and lethality of the Islamic State's foreign terrorist attacks are increasing.
Many of the attacks claimed by the Islamic State have been referred to as "lone wolf" attacks, but these results show that in the majority of cases this is false: these are attacks by a foreign adversary. This is important for crafting counter-terrorism policy going forward. Among other things, the report demonstrates that depriving the Islamic State of territorial holdings does not diminish its international appeal, which had been a key assumption of the current campaign against the Islamic State.
"The world is still a weird place, despite my efforts to make clear and perfect sense of it".
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
