Persistence and a political strategy needed to counter IS
The November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris — which struck at the heart of France and of Europe as a whole— brought the terrorist threat posed by Islamic State (IS) to the forefront of the foreign-policy agenda. For me, the answer to such assaults cannot be to lock our doors and board up our windows. To surrender the way we live, to give up on our open societies, would be to play into the terrorists’ hands.
However, our response needs to be, first and foremost, a political one: More vigilance at home and more intensive co-operation with our partners’ security authorities. We in the West must show resolve in battling the social exclusion that breeds alienation, which implies stepping up our efforts to integrate Muslim and other immigrants at all levels. At the same time, we must tackle the evil of IS in the places where it began — Iraq and Syria.
