Publications

Research Briefs are short, engaging and accessibly written descriptions of the results of TSAS-funded research projects, focusing on top-level conclusions and policy relevance.

Research Reports are longer, evidence-based, policy-relevant scholarly analyses on topics related to terrorism, security, and society, broadly defined, that touch on Canada, Canadian issues in comparative context, or global issues of interest to a Canadian audience.

Working Papers are scholarly analyses of various lengths that provide analysis based on TSAS-funded research projects. We are no longer accepting submissions for this series.

RESEARCH BRIEF

The Khalistan Movement and Its Impact in Canada

The Sikh separatist movement — Khalistan — peaked in the 1980s and early 1990s in Punjab, India. The idea of Khalistan is complex and multi-layered and rooted in India’s colonial past, specifically in the 1947 partition of India, the political and religious conflicts post-partition, and a variety of incidents in the 1980s, in particular Operation…

RESEARCH BRIEF

China’s Digital War on Terrorism: Can Mass Surveillance and Cyber Censorship Radicalize a Nation

This research brief concisely describes my analysis of China’s internet censorship system – colloquially known as “the Great Firewall” – and the societal impacts it has had in terms of nationalism, radicalization, and terrorism, particularly amongst China’s youth. In short, for over twenty years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been limiting online freedoms and…

RESEARCH BRIEF

Counterterrorism Resilience: Expert Roundtables on Canadian National Security and Countering Violent Extremism

Summary: Conducted expert roundtable discussions in fall 2022 focused on the intersecting themes of 1) extremism, violence and ideology: the complexity and evolution of Ideologically Motivated Extremism (IMVE) in Canada, 2) online tools: violent extremist and terrorist use of the internet, disinformation, and online platforms and 3) an evolving landscape: addressing violent extremism and countering…

RESEARCH BRIEF

The Parallel Threat: Political Framing and Right-Wing Extremism in Canada and the United States

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, drastic measures were taken to secure the US homeland, as well as to curtail what was understood as an imminent and transnational threat: Islamist-inspired terrorism (IIT). Political decision-makers immediately tightened the borders, erected new security agencies, adopted sweeping antiterrorism legislation, and initiated the wars in Afghanistan and…

RESEARCH BRIEF

The Spy Who Briefed Me: The benefits and risks of cooperation between the Canadian Intelligence and national security community and its non-traditional partners

In recent years, scholarship on the Canadian national security and intelligence community has focused on its structure and functions, (Carvin, Juneau and Forcese 2021; Juneau, Lagassé and Vucetic 2019; Juneau and Carvin 2021), critical scholarship (Crosby and Monaghan 2018; Lyon and Murakami Wood 2020); Nagra and Maurutto 2013), history (Barnes 2020; Kealey 2017; Sethna and…

RESEARCH BRIEF

National Security Education in Canada

This project asked the question: How are police officers trained in national security in Canada? What can the process of studying national security education in Canada tell us about national security itself? We conclude that national security education in Canada takes care to avoid racial profiling and stay within the confines of law, there are…

RESEARCH BRIEF

Exploiting Chaos: How Malicious Non-State Actors Are Using COVID-19 to Their Advantage in Cyberspace

Since the beginning of 2020, while societies and economies around the world have struggled to cope with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, cyberspace has given governments, businesses, and general end-users the ability to work, play, and connect in new and innovative ways. With everything from workspaces and classrooms to family gatherings and exercise routines…

RESEARCH BRIEF

Where is the Mother?: The Securitization of Mothers in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism

In the search for effective strategies for countering terrorism and violent extremism, there is a growing recognition of the role of women as ‘new security threats’ due to the diverse roles women play in building and sustaining violent extremism – or as ‘new security actors’ providing the state with access to hard-to-reach spaces. This research…

RESEARCH BRIEF

Diversifying Intelligence: History, Discrimination and the Canadian Intelligence Community

Introduction: In 2017 the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) faced a discrimination lawsuit from five of its former employees. These employees alleged that they faced ongoing and regular discrimination based on their religion, race, ethnicity, gender and/or sexual orientation (Press, 2017). As many current and former intelligence officers can attest, the intelligence apparatus of Canada…

RESEARCH BRIEF

Weak Personal Ideals Incline Proud People Towards Religious Radicalization in Anxious Circumstances

This research brief describes results of our experimental and correlational studies conducted between 2011 and 2019 on how weak personal ideals, high self-esteem, and uncertain circumstances combine to cause states conducive to aggressive religious radicalization. Despite theoretical speculation about the importance of these variables since the middle of last century, only scattered empirical research has…

WORKING PAPER

“One-man war”: A History of Lone-actor Terrorism in Canada, 1868-2018

Using primary source material obtained through archives and other open sources, this working paper examines, through a series of qualitative case studies, nineteen lone-actor terrorist attacks that occurred in Canada across a 150-year period, specifically between 1868 and 2018. The next section addresses methodological issues, including in connection to definitions. That is followed by an…

RESEARCH BRIEF

AN EXAMINATION OF COMPETENCIES FOR AND THE EVALUATION OF CVE IN POLICING

Drawing on expert interviews (n=10), an environmental scan of current practices within one Canadian province (Ontario), and insights generated by a police-academic working group assembled for this project, this research documents: 1. the types of CVE activities police officers in Ontario are currently engaging in; 2. the state of police service performance assessment tools in…

RESEARCH BRIEF

TERRORISM AND THE TERRORIZED: How the ‘Terrorism’ Label is Informed and Applied to a Violent Attack in Canada

SUMMARY •The threat posed by al Qaeda, Daesh, and those inspired by their ideologies, has framed the way Canada has understood and labelled terrorism for almost twenty years, but the framework within which we compartmentalize and understand terrorists needs to adapt. •There is a fluidity to the “terrorism” label and an inherent inequality in its…

Working Paper Title 2020
RESEARCH REPORT

No Country for a Returning Foreign Fighter? More Reasons for Repatriating Canadian IS Member in Custody

What should the Canadian government do about returning extremist travellers who have been involved with the so-called Islamic State (IS)? Should the government develop a gender-informed response to deal with male and female members of IS? What are some of the major causes of radicalization leading some Canadians to join IS? What are the views…

Working Paper Title 2020
RESEARCH REPORT

Preparing Professionals to Dialogue about Extremism and Radicalization: A look at the ERC programs at McGill University and University of Quebec in Montreal

Historically, extremist groups from religious and far-right organizations have been active across Canada. In the last few years, the situation in Quebec has been particularly alarming (Amarasingam and Tiflati 2015; Dwivedi 2017; Zine 2019). According to Ministere de la securite publique (2016), between 2013 and 2014, religious-based hate crimes against Jewish people, Muslims, and unspecified…

Working Paper Title 2020
RESEARCH BRIEF

Domestic Jihadist Threat to Australia and Canada 2000-2020: An Overview

There is surprisingly little systematic and publicly available information on the nature, scale, and evolution of the Jihadist threat in Australia and Canada. Government responses to specific terrorist incidents and annual reports on the terrorist threat provide little insight into the perpetrators, their methods, and intended targets. More information is available in the media, but…

Working Paper Title 2019
RESEARCH REPORT

‘IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER’: Recognizing the Breadth of Women’s Participation in Violent Political Organizations and Beyond.

The potential for political violence in women is still something that most contemporary societies are wary of openly acknowledging. It is, after all, easier to apprehend the relation between women and violence as a unidirectional one, that is to say, as something that is done to them. Even when a woman is at the origins…

Working Paper Title 2019
WORKING PAPER

Tracking Transnational Terrorist Resourcing Nodes and Networks

This study is the first comprehensive effort to collect, code, compare, and analyze all available open source data on transnational terrorist financing networks. It thus contributes to the ongoing optimization of anti-terrorist resourcing laws, policies, and risk-management practices. Initially the study operationalizes some key concepts, then goes on to review efforts to contain terrorist financing…

Working Paper Title 2019
RESEARCH REPORT

Meanwhile in Canada: anti-Muslim ordinary racism and the banalization of far-right ideology

Aurélie Campana (Université Laval) et Samuel Tanner (Université de Montréal) This paper focuses on the public discourse of extra-parliamentary far right groups in Canada. It analyses how these groups shape discourses on Muslims and Islam in an attempt to influence public debates on core far right issues, such as immigration. It argues that more subtle…

Working Paper Title 2019
RESEARCH BRIEF

TERRORISM HOAXES IN CANADA: Data and Trends

Empirical research on terrorism hoaxes is limited, because hoaxes are frequently excluded from large sample terrorism events database on the grounds that they do not directly yield casualties or property damage. Some data sources do include information on terrorism hoaxes, but they are limited by their scope of coverage (see Figure 1). International Terrorism: Attributes…

Working Paper 2018 Title
WORKING PAPER

Linguistic and Narrative Trends Among Islamic State Videos and Magazines

This study applies the semi-automated method of sentiment analysis to magazines and videos that have been produced by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) in order to determine what thematic narratives are prevalent within this propaganda and how consistent these narratives are between the platforms of magazines and videos. The data for this study included 28…

Working Paper 2018 Title
WORKING PAPER

Duped: Why Gender Stereotypes are Leading to Inadequate Deradicalization and Disengagement Strategies

In narratives around insurgencies, terrorism, and other forms of armed political violence, the media -and policymakers- frequently portray women as victims or unintelligent pawns of men. Occasionally, when a women has a direct role in a violent act, she will receive more in-depth attention, with various often salacious details reported by the media about her…

Working Paper 2018 Title
WORKING PAPER

Belonging: Feelings of attachment and acceptance among immigrants in Canada

In line with previous research, we argue that belonging is a core dimension of immigrant integration, and that belonging is better conceptualized and measured by distinguishing between immigrants’ feeling of being attached and feeling of being accepted. Feeling attached captures immigrants’ desire to belong, whereas feeling accepted captures the perception that the community wants them…

Working Paper 2018 Title
WORKING PAPER

Trajectories of Radicalized Females in Montreal

In February 2016, it was reported that 10-12 young females– from varied religious and secular families – who lived in Canada and had been educated in Canadian schools had left for Syria. Of these, at least five Canadian women had conceived children in ISIS territory (Cain 2016, Hopper 2016) and were thus contributing to raising…

Working Paper 2018 Title
WORKING PAPER

Forensic Psychiatry and the Extremist: A Review of the Recent Violence Risk Assessment Tools for Offenders Convicted of Terrorism Offences

Opining on the concept of dangerousness, Michel Foucault once characterized psychiatry as an endeavor that attempts “to rationalize the confused where madness and crime mix”. In his view, psychiatry gained ‘prestige’ because it developed a framework of a medical discipline concerned with “a reaction to the dangers inherent to the social body”. There is some…

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