Annelies Pauwels

Flemish Peace Institute

The self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) recently shocked the world by destroying a number of archaeological sites throughout the region under its control, among which were the ancient Assyrian cities of Nineveh and Nimrud. Determined to impose its culture as the dominant one in the region, Daesh – the Arabic equivalent of ISIS...

Recent high-profile lone actor attacks and the detection of similar plans by terrorist networks have made the threat emanating from right-wing terrorism evident. A rise in right-wing violence poses a number of challenges to current counterterrorism efforts. It puts additional strains on existing deficiencies in resources and personnel, but also def...

The Covid-19 pandemic leaves no one unaffected, including terrorists. European terrorist networks are torn between protecting their own members against the virus and using the pandemic to further their goals. This causes immediate and long-term effects on terrorism in Europe.

The increase in lone-actor terrorist attacks in Europe is concerning: lone actors’ relative isolation compared to group actors, as well as the near-spontaneous character of their attacks have made it harder for law enforcement to detect and disrupt their plans. The latest Europol terrorist threat assessment highlights that in 2019, all but one of t...

Right-wing violence is rising across the EU, illustrating the need for adequate measures to prevent and counter the threat. Yet, many existing preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) measures have been developed around Islamist extremism or in response to the wave of violent right-wing extremism (VRWE) three decades ago. This paper exp...

Female criminals generally receive more media and public attention than their male counterparts. Bonnie was more popular than her partner Clyde, because somehow, the combination of women and violence seems counter-intuitive. Nowadays the media continue to delve into the life paths of Shamima Begun, Tatiana Wielandt, and Hayat Boumeddiene and wonder...

This grey swan scenario forms part of the EUISS Chaillot Paper "What if ...? Scanning the horizon: 12 scenarios for 2021", designed to help decision-makers think about possible responses to crises and how they can be prevented.

This grey swan scenario forms part of the EUISS Report "What if ... Conceivable crises: Unpredictable in 2017, unmanageable in 2020?", designed to help decision-makers think about possible responses to crises and how they can be prevented.

The EU has a reputation for setting good standards. During the migration crisis, the humanitarian sector (non-governmental and international organisations) criticised the Union for letting its standards slip. Yet the problem all too often came down to numbers – and their reliability. A regulatory superpower like the EU is only as strong as its know...

Late in 2016, the UN started negotiations on a new global migration regime. For 20 years, the UN has struggled to mobilise its members to discuss migration, despite heavy support from less-developed economies in the ‘global South’ which see this as a means to gain access to labour markets in Europe and North America. The UN has finally managed to b...

To step up the fight against terrorism, the EU is looking to forge closer ties with strategic countries in its Southern Neighbourhood. The Union’s initiatives to set up counter-terrorism dialogues in the region have, however, been met with a hesitant response. How can the EU overcome different interpretations of what effective counter-terrorism sho...

In a marked shift from previous policies, many advanced economies are creating labour market integration initiatives for refugees. This Brief argues that although this might seem a shortcut to a more progressive strategy, it risks undermining the integrity of refugee policy and repeating the mistakes of the 1990s.

Migrant groups are influential actors in the international arena. Globally, diaspora communities and governments alike are capitalising on this state of affairs, as demonstrated by the fact that diaspora lobbying is on the rise and governments are seeking to instrumentalise their expatriates. This Alert looks at how the EU finds itself increasingly...

Perfect accomplice of eco-criminals, corruption allows those involved in illegal activities in the environmental field to make significant profits at the expense of the environment and citizens. Exploiting essential and inalienable goods of the community, the so-called phenomenon of “green corruption” represents a particularly serious form of corru...

Thanks to Daesh’s recent territorial gains in Libya, its rivalry with the al-Qaeda network has been taken to the next level. In their battle for supporters, fighters and funding, the jihadists are competing fiercely for the most lucrative ‘industry’ in the region: kidnapping-for-ransom.

Countering violent extremism (CVE) is a fledging approach to combatting radicalisation in the Horn of Africa. But in spite of encouraging progress, CVE remains a tall order as programme implementation continues to be regionally fragmented and largely underfunded.