The Home Secretary gave a speech on the threat of international terrorism to the Institute for Public Policy Research Commission on National Security this week, and it provided a useful and interesting overview of government direction and thinking.

The speech was timely, coming as it does ahead of the imminent revision of the CONTEST counter-terrorism strategy. The Home Sec clearly intends the new strategy to be very different from the existing one and talks of the need for it to be ‘more sophisticated, open and inclusive’.

She describes international terrorism affecting British interests as having three distinct phases.

Phase One lasted from the seventies until the late eighties – and was defined by terrorist attacks committed by groups closely and directly associated with the Palestinian cause, or by groups which enjoyed a degree of state sponsorship, or by both.

Phase Two began almost when Phase One finished, at the end of the war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. This led, rather directly, to both the creation of Al Qaeda and to the development of an Al Qaeda worldview.

Phase Three, and the threat we face now, comes not only from Al Qaeda and from its so called ‘franchises’ around the world. It also comes from other terrorist organisations, of many nationalities and ethnicities, that often sympathise with parts of the Al Qaeda narrative.

If anyone was under any illusion about the importance and growing place that terrorism has as an issue at the very heart of modern day policing, or about the integral nature of the PREVENT agenda to everyday operations, consider what the Home Sec had to say about the nature and seriousness of the threat.

‘The  current threat level in this country is described as sustained, and severe. Not only that, but as being “at the severe end of severe” This threat level is accompanied by a wholly new form of terrorism – so different in motivation, complexity and reach from earlier phases, in fact, that it might as well have a different name. The focus of those who threaten us today is not a cause related to a specific geographical area. They wish to kill British people – and of course others – anywhere in the world. They want a reordering of global political structures and a separation of faith groups. This new terrorism actively seeks to recruit people in this country and to subvert our institutions’.

It is also interesting to note how the agenda is being driven across Government.

Last week the Department for Children Schools and Families provided advice to teachers on how to deal with signs of radicalisation. This is to be extended to student bodies and higher and further education. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is considering what impact the issue of counter radicalisation should have on their programmes – as are the Department for Work and Pensions; and the Department of Health. The Ministry of Justice is working to manage the problem of radicalisation in prisons and the Home Office and DCLG are working on the preventing violent extremism programme. The Home Sec now holds a Weekly Security Meeting with senior representatives from each of these Departments and others across Whitehall to discuss their work and the current threat with the police and the security and intelligence agencies.

So, scary times.

Next up for debate will be the interception of communications and the obtaining and use of communications data. The government will argue that this is vital to fighting terrorism and combating serious crime, including child sex abuse, murder and drugs trafficking, citing the fact that communications data is used as important evidence in 95% of serious crime cases and in almost all Security Service operations since 2004. Consultation on this very sensitive and emotive issue will begin in the New Year.

The full text of the Home Secretary’s speech can be found here

Related posts:

1. Fast forward to the future
2. Cause and effect
3. Beardies fight back
4. The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Terrorists
5. Participation goes national