MaCGill Summer School: INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM: HOW CAN WE FACE UP TO THIS AWESOME CHALLENGE?- 20 July 2016, Wednesday

Source:  http://www.macgillsummerschool.com/2016-programme/

4.00 pm (GMT+1)

INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM: HOW CAN WE FACE UP TO THIS AWESOME CHALLENGE?

Terrorism, both national and international, has been a fact of life for a very long time and history is peppered with terrible examples of the use of this kind of violence for political, religious or ideological aims. We have been witness to it here on our own small island and have to this day many shattered lives as witness. In recent times, for most people, the attack on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11th, 2001 stands out as the most dramatic and most murderous even though the litany is long throughout the world, including Europe, of terrorist attacks claiming the lives of innocent people in places where they are simply going about their daily lives and are suddenly caught up in an event which kills or injures them or changes their lives forever. Terrorist atrocities are a fact of life in countries of the Middle East, Syria and Iraq in particular, but also in Europe and most recently on our own doorstep in Spain and France where, last November, 130 people were murdered and hundreds more injured in a Parisian theatre and nearby cafes as they relaxed on a Friday evening. This is today’s version of war and the fact that the perpetrators are from within the societies they want to destroy and are prepared to sacrifice themselves in the process makes of it a very difficult one to win, especially when they have a well funded state, Daesh or Islamic State, behind them. Can we defend ourselves against this new scourge and are the security forces in Europe well enough equipped and, more importantly, well enough co-ordinated, to combat this kind of threat?

Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan
Rob Wainwright, Director-General, Europol
Dr Paul Gill, Senior Lecturer in Security & Crime, University College London
Moderator: Gerry Foley, Western Correspondent UTV, former Political Editor for ITV at Westminster