By CHRIS DALBY BRUSSELS – Over recent years the internet and social media has become an effective and ever expanding platform for propaganda, radicalisation, and recruitment by terrorist organisations such as the Islamic State (ISIS). Terrorists have exploited the narrative power and the outreach capacity of contemporary information technology and online communications to swell their ranks and publicise their agenda.One of the most worrisome trends about ISIS, according to experts is...
Read More »EU project studying “pinch points” to deflect lone wolf attacks
By CHRIS DALBY, with BROOKS TIGNERBRUSSELS – Europe faces a daunting mix of terrorist threats, from groups to so-called “lone wolf” antagonists acting alone. And as the infamous assault-weapon murder of 69 people in July 2011 by a Norwegian right-winger bloodily demonstrated, lone actor extremist events (LAEEs) can be just as devastating as those planned by larger cells.One group of researchers is looking into the complicated issue of how, once an LAEE starts, to identify...
Read More »Do overlapping tasks between national police and military forces require an overhaul in how they deal with EU’s internal security?
By CHRIS DALBY, with BROOKS TIGNERBRUSSELS – It is now a commonplace to see armed soldiers patrolling the streets alongside police detachments in Paris and Brussels since the terrorist attacks against them in November 2015 and March 2016, respectively.This raises a number of questions about the future role of the military today in civil security. Should the military in each EU country do this? If so, how and under what circumstances? And how to work with police forces?Conducting joint counter-terrorist training of national police and military units would be an effective response to terrorist threats, say Dutch, German and other officials. There has been little...
Read More »EU & Afghanistan agree new deal on irregular migrants in Europe
By EMILY SMITH, with BROOKS TIGNERBRUSSELS – Just over 100 countries and international organisations met here on 4-5 October to pledge more support for Afghanistan during their donors’ conference. Hosted by the EU, the parties pledged EUR 13.6 billion in development aid to Kabul for the next four years.Despite the new money for development, Western leaders continue to insist on the primordial role that security must play“We must not ignore security: it remains the most important component for all the other initiatives. If we are not vigilant the country will slide back into violent extremism,” Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said as the meeting began. “Security and stability are essential,” said Tusk.Security in Afghanistan may be uppermost on Tusk’s mind, but the more pressing matter for Europe is...
Read More »Why NATO and the EU should jointly address post-conflicts
Euro-View: Martin Howard on EU-NATO co-operationNot much budged BREXIT from the UK media during July. But one exception was the Chilcot report on Britain’s role in the Iraq war. Many headlines were about the decision to go to war, its legality and the intelligence failures that preceded it.But just as important was what the report said about the aftermath. It’s important because that failure not only led to most of the bad news that has come out Iraq, but also because the lessons go beyond that conflict. Looking at Afghanistan and Libya, those lessons seem not to have been learnt.We need to be careful about drawing parallels. But there is a common theme...
Read More »Update on tenders and calls-for-proposals in EU security (18/10/2016)
EU Security Research Projects Awarded (18/10/2016)
Upcoming European security conferences & exhibits (18/10/2016)
EU finally unveils draft law to harmonise scanner certification
By BROOKS TIGNER BRUSSELS – After several years of two-steps-forward/one-step-backward effort, the European Commission finally unveiled on 7 September its draft regulation to harmonise certification schemes for aviation security screening equipment across the EU member states.It hems in the ways that national authorities have traditionally tweaked their rules to protect their home market, thus forcing foreign suppliers of the equipment to get separation certifications in each country. Once approved, the new measure would put in place a common set of certification norms and thus create mutual recognition between national authorities, thus eliminating duplicative costs for industry.While the European market for aviation screening equipment is not huge, the proposal carries two important implications. One is that it will shore up the European market by creating a recognised international standard to challenge the US certification one that dominates the global market. More important, however, is the second implication: it opens the door for...
Read More »EU-funded research device to ‘sniff out’ hidden immigrants
By LAUREN KUHN BRUSSELS – In today’s security climate, migration and border control issues are top priorities for European authorities. Border control agencies such as Frontex, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union, as well as national border control officials, have been overwhelmed by the recent influx of migrants and refugees.One current research project is trying to make life a bit easier for these officials. SNOOPY, a project funded under the EU’s Research and Innovation programme of Horizon 2020, is a handheld sniffer for concealed people discovery that is being developed by researchers coordinated by the Italian Universita degli Studi di Brescia in conjunction with hardware developers at C-TECH Innovation Ltd, a UK research, technology and innovation organisation. This project is nearing the end of its life-cycle, having started in early 2014 and set to end at the beginning of 2017, and an overall budget of EUR 2.6 million.In an interview with SECURITY EUROPE, Giorgio Sberveglieri, the project’s lead and a professor at the University of Brescia, talked about the project’s two main goals.The first is to develop a...
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