Terrorism in the World: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Overview

Terrorism has been a part of human society for centuries, if not millennia. Even if we struggle to agree on a common definition of what constitutes terrorism, we are still able to have an educated conversation on what it looks like and what has been the impact on societies both past and present.

This course will examine how terrorism both differs and is similar in terms of objectives, strategies and tactics over the centuries and the past fifty years specifically. The focus of the course is on practice and real-world events, not theory.

Learning Outcomes

• Appreciate the wide variety of terrorist movements
• Understand how governments over time have chosen to view and respond to terrorism
• Understand how terrorism is positioned today in the political threat spectrum and future trends
• Understand a brief history of counterterrorism in Canada
• Discuss the bodies of knowledge which are best placed to confront terrorist individuals and organizations

Audience

• Current practitioners and policy makers in the public and private sector.

Duration

Cost

• $1095 (plus tax)

Featured Instructor

John Gilmour joins the PDI team after a thirty-seven year career in the federal government in positions of growing responsibility. His initial professional experience was with Transport Canada and the management of Canada’s major international airports. This included serving as project manager and analyst for airport security programs. This led to a two-year assignment to the Security and Intelligence (Operations) section of the Privy Council office as a senior policy analyst, in support of the office of the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister (NSA).

From there John joined the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS), where he served in a variety of branches, most recently as the Head-Strategic Planning and Operational Analysis with the Service’s Counter-Terrorism Division.  Although retiring in 2018 from the Service, John continues to be periodically retained as a senior advisor for CSIS.

John has a BA from Carleton University (Ottawa), and a Masters and Ph.D from the War Studies Program of the Royal Military College of Canada (Kingston). He serves on the Advisory Board of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS) – Vancouver, and is a Fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI).

Sessions