Security

CURBING IRAN’S HYDRA-HEADED REGIONAL NETWORK: EVIDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES’ STRATEGY Iran has, over several decades, developed a regional network of armed partners stretching from Lebanon and Iraq to Yemen and the Palestinian territories. The principal organisations commonly associated with this network include Lebanese Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, several Iran-aligned Iraqi militias, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and, to a more complicated degree, Hamas. Academic and policy literature cautions that these organisations should not all simply be labelled Iranian “proxies”: their dependence on Tehran and freedom of action vary considerably. Nevertheless, Iran supplies important elements of financing, weapons, training, technology and…

TERRORISM, WARNING FATIGUE AND THE SECURITY LESSONS OF LOCKERBIE: A DEEP PARAGRAPHIC ANALYSIS The history of terrorism repeatedly shows that the decisive security failure is often not the total absence of warning, but the inability of institutions and societies to correctly interpret warning before catastrophe occurs. Lockerbie remains one of the clearest historical examples of how a terrorist act can expose weaknesses not only in physical security but also in intelligence coordination, international cooperation, political judgement and institutional preparedness. The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in December 1988 demonstrated that terrorist violence is rarely a spontaneous act.…