HOMELAND SECURITY

Karen Glaser
(Editor at Terrorism and the Economy)

Copyright: http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com

Publication in RIEAS web site (www.rieas.gr) on 10th December 2016

A new study examining the roles of American jihadi women and found a significant increase in their participation in terrorist activity in the past five years. Within the wider movement, American women served primarily as plotters, supporters, and travelers. While few female American jihadists appear to act alone or carry out violent plots, many support activities along with friends, siblings, and romantic partners. The women are active online and offline, and social media use is common. Read more

Joseph Fitsanakis
(Senior Editor)

Copyright: www.intelnews.org - Publication in RIEAS web site (www.rieas.gr) on 9 October 2016.

Last week, following the results of Russia’s parliamentary election, Russian media run a story suggesting that the Kremlin is planning to implement far-reaching changes to the country’s intelligence apparatus. According to the Moscow-based daily Kommersant, the administration of President Vladimir Putin is considering merging Russia’s two major intelligence and counterterrorism agencies into one. Specifically, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, will merge with the FSB, the Federal Security Service, according to Kommersant. The merger will create a new amalgamated intelligence agency that will be named “Ministry of State Security”, or MGB, in Russian. The last time this title was used was from 1946 to 1953, during the last years of the reign of Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. It was one of several agencies that were eventually combined to form the Soviet KGB in 1954. Read more

Giuseppe Gagliano
(President of the De Cristoforis Strategic Studies Center, Italy)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) – Publication date: 28 August 2016

The tensions underlying international exchange are indicative of the importance of cultural factors in economic warfare and oblige companies to be aware of the scientific progress if they intend to continue developing. It took France a long time to define a culture of its own in the field of intelligence, and until the previous century, the French word renseignement had a negative connotation. The political elite considered this activity to be degrading and comparable to dirty police work..... Read more

Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr)
Publication date: 20 August 2016

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS)

In an era dominated by the fluttering fame of the online jungle, the feeding frenzy of media clamoring for ratings, pathetic politicians, international divas, designer NGOs, and a collective attention span measured in seconds, a country’s slow death weighs little. Instant mayhem, death and destruction immortalized on YouTube, barbaric propaganda images of neo-Neanderthals severing the heads of innocents, and the occasional blurb by a controversial, and almost always incompetent, “public figure” shape out perceptions of “reality.”...Read more

Alexandros Kassidiaris
(Security Analyst, Postgraduate from the Department of War Studies,
King's College London, UK)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 3 May 2016

'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles' (Sun Tzu, 2012). The importance of thoroughly knowing and understanding the enemy on the battlefield can be summarized in this well-known and diachronic Sun Tzu's quotation. But what are the implications of this 'knowledge' in the contemporary operational theater? Besides the military and tactical capabilities, the significance of other individual key elements cannot be overlooked. One of the prominent elements that fall into this category is the familiarization with the enemy's cultural context. This hypothesis is even more vital when the potential enemy may be hidden among the civilians of a specific population which actually shapes the traditional pattern of insurgencies. ..Read more

Jamie Smith
(A decorated former CIA officer, author of Gray Work: Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy (WmMorrow/HarperCollins 2015), former advisor to the Chair of US House Intelligence Terrorism, HUMINT, Analysis, and Counterintelligence Subcommittee, founding Director of Blackwater Security and frequent commentator for FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, and advisor to GRAY | Solutions and holds a doctorate in law).

Copyright: http://www.americanthinker.com - Publication at RIEAS web site (www.rieas.gr) on 16 April 2016

The man captured on airport surveillance video wearing a white jacket and black hat, is unidentified and reportedly on the run. The two jihadist brothers are dead -- killed in the suicide bombings. Radical Najim Laachraoui is also reportedly dead -- and a second unknown who took part in the metro attack is missing. But one day before the Brussels bombings, Belgian police named Laachraoui as a major suspect in the Paris attacks back in November. On top of that, his DNA was found on the suicide vests in Paris, in a Brussels apartment and a house at Auvelais in southern Belgium, which were both used by the Paris bombers before those attacks. Until this week, he had only been known by an alias, Soufiane Kayal, and had rented the Auvelais house using the false name. Read more