The most well-known ISIS terrorist atrocities in Europe, including the 2015 Paris and 2016 Brussels attacks, saw individuals who in the past had been involved in organized crime and illegal trade graduate into the ranks of the world’s most successful terrorist organisation. It is now widely assumed that Europe’s terrorists are no longer radicals first and foremost but criminals who turned to political violence at some stage throughout their ordinary crime careers. Thus a threat emanating from the “crime-terror nexus” hangs over Europe.
GLOBSEC, an independent, non-partisan, non-governmental organisation which aims to shape the global debate on foreign and security policy, responded to this threat by developing a research and advocacy project aimed at addressing the “crime-terror nexus” in Europe. Our project titled From Criminals to Terrorists and Back? will:
collect, collate and analyse data on terrorism convicts from 11 EU countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK) with the highest number of arrests for terrorism offences. We will investigate whether these individuals had prior criminal connections, and if so, whether a specific connection to illegal trade is a precursor to terrorism, and to what extent this trade funds terrorism. In short, we will check whether crime-terror nexus exists and how strong it truly is.
disseminate project findings at high profile GLOBSEC Strategic Forums (GLOBSEC Bratislava Forum, TATRA Summit, Chateau Bela conferences) and other internationally acclaimed gatherings which attract decision makers, experts, private sector and law enforcement representatives, while also incorporating their expert level feedback into our work.
help shape and strengthen the European counter-terrorism efforts by providing tailor made solutions on combating crime-terror nexus and terrorist financing via education and awareness, and advocacy efforts involving decision makers and security stakeholders in the 11 targeted countries. This line of activity directly links the project to the widely acclaimed work of the GLOBSEC Intelligence Reform Initiative (GIRI), led by Sec. Michael Chertoff, which is involved in developing and promoting more effective transatlantic counter-terrorism solutions.
Kick off family picture:
GLOBSEC
913740492386586624
Video explainer:
GLOBSEC
913372421725532160
Kacper Rekawek, leader of the project:
GLOBSEC
911562212363431936
Presentation of the project by Alena Kudzko in London:
"Throughout recent history, Spain has been one of Europe’s most unique counter-terrorists as it first focused on its fights with separatist terrorism wh...
Unique to the European terrorism context is the case of Bulgaria, of which the majority of cases in our database are from the local Salafi Roma communit...
With 20 more cases than in the initial Kick Off Report, a clearer view on the extent and nature of the crime-terror nexus amongst Belgian Jihadists is
...
The second and final report on the Austrian‘ crime-terror nexus analysed all sixteen profiles of individuals arrested in 2015 for terrorist offences, pr...
The second and final report on the Netherlands‘ crime-terror nexus has analysed all fourteen profiles of individuals arrested in 2015 for offences of te...
In Greece, where terrorism offenses do not follow the current European radicalisation trends, thus being one of the outliers, the links between crime an...
An initial examination of people arrested for terrorism or related offences in Bulgaria appears to discount any relation between crime and terrorism, as...
This is the second of the series of ten national quarterly reports covering the tentative findings from study of 2015 terrorism arrestees, as part of GL...
Over the past few months members of the GLOBSEC Policy Institute have been busy highlighting our most extensive and ambitious research initiative. From ...
