Global Terrorism Index 2019: Mr Serge Stroobants

We spoke with Mr Serge Stroobants, Director of Operations for Europe & MENA, Institute for Economics and Peace after the launch of the 2019 Global Terrorism Index. We discussed the following:

• Afghanistan Ranked #1 for the first time
• Rise of Far Right Extremism
• Political Activism or Political Terrorism?
• Women and Terrorism
• New factors in the 2019 report

For insight into the exact questions we discussed: 

• For the first time since 2003, Iraq is not at the top of the list. It's number two. This year, it's Afghanistan making the Taliban specifically the deadliest terrorist group in the world, accounting for 31% of deaths by terrorism in that country. Can you please share some of the factors that contribute to their ranking?
• Another part of the report that I found interesting was around the rise of far right extremism. My understanding for the report, this type of violence has been increasing across Europe, parts of Oceania and in North America for quite some time. Can you discuss some of the factors that account for this rise? In North America in particular does this rise in far right extremism take into account growing number of mass shootings and gun violence related to masses of supremacists in the United States for example? -
• You mentioned in your presentation that far right extremism is driven by narrative. Can you explain how this differs from political terrorism? - There also seems to be a rise in female led suicide attacks among groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria, but also in Afghanistan. Can you speak more about this new phenomenon?
• What has surprised you the most about this use global terrorism index? 2019?