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.

Working Paper 2018 Title
WORKING PAPER

Kidnapping for Ransom: An Analysis of Canadian Cases

Since 2001, thirty Canadian nationals have been kidnapped and held for ransom by terrorist groups while traveling or working abroad. This paper explores two questions relevant to policymakers and analysts assigned to kidnapping for ransom (KFR) files: why are Canadians targeted in kidnapping operations by terrorist groups; and what options are available to the Government…

Working Paper 2018 Title
WORKING PAPER

How “Alone” are Lone-Actors? Exploring the Ideological, Signaling, and Support Networks of Lone-Actor Terrorists

The threat of lone-actor terrorism poses a unique challenge to security practitioners tasked with detecting, identifying, and preventing acts of ideologically and politically-motivated violence. Conventional knowledge and early academic work on lone-actor terrorism has popularized the concept that these individuals radicalize, operate, plan, and execute terrorist plots in relative anonymity, with little connection to formal…

Working Paper 2018 Title
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Understanding the diversity of Jihadi Rhetoric: Who says what, and how?

Information on how the Global Jihadist Movement’s (GJM) leaders define their ideology is widely available, but few studies have focused on analyzing the entire contribution of all the actors involved in the construction of this decentralized movement’s discourse (Winter 2015), and few studies provide an in-depth qualitative analysis of it (Macnair and Frank 2017). In…

Working Paper 2017 Title
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From nascent insurrections to full-blown insurgencies: Why some militant groups engage in sustained armed conflicts, a quantitative approach

There is a growing threat from terrorism and insurgencies worldwide in recent years. It is puzzling why some initially weak militant groups, who face immense difficulties in garnering material resources and support, sustain violent operations and confront more powerful militaries. Why do some militant groups engage in sustained armed conflicts while other groups do not?…

Working Paper 2017 Title
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Analysis of Low-Tech Terrorism in Western Democracies: Attacks with Vehicles, Blades and Incendiary Devices

This study explores the issue of low-tech terrorism in Canada, France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom from 2001 through 2017. As a descriptive analysis, this study reveals significant trends, as well as the most common terrorist groups involved in low-tech terrorism, their weapon(s) of choice, target(s) of choice, and how low-tech terrorism…

Working Paper 2017 Title
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Reporting Suspicion in Canada: Insights from the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing

Following the premise that suspicion is less an event than a process, how do banks produce suspicion about financial transactions for reporting purposes? To what extent the quality of suspicious activity reporting is controlled? Download Working Paper Read Policy Brief

Working Paper 2017 Title
WORKING PAPER

The Experience of Canadian Muslim Civil-society Organization and Activists in Influencing and Shaping Counter-terrorism Legislation and Policy

The main objective of this research is to understand the experiences of Canadian Muslim civil-society organisations that seek to influence counter-terrorism legislation and policy. I use the public debate surrounding the enactment of one of the most significant pieces of Canadian counter-terrorism legislation since 2001, the 2015 Anti-terrorism Act, Bill C-51, as a case study….

Working Paper 2017 Title
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Broadening our Understanding of Anti-Authority Movements in Canada

Academic explorations of anti-authority movements are virtually non-existent in Canada. We have no reliable primary data or empirical insights into Freemen-on-the-Land (FOTL) or other similar contingents. What we do know comes largely from Associate Chief Justice Rooke’s decision in Meads v. Meads (2012). He refers to the loose collection of individuals and small cells as…

Working Paper 2017 Title
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A Concurrent Evaluation of Threat Assessment Tools for the Individual Assessment of Terrorism

This research examines what is the content overlap among three tools that may be relevant for assessing an individual’s risk for terrorist violence: Version 3 of the Historical-Clinical-Risk Management—20 (HCR-20 V3), the first and second versions of the Violent Extremism Risk Assessment Protocol (VERA and VERA 2), and the Multi-Level Guidelines (MLG)? Download Working Paper…

Working Paper 2016 Title
WORKING PAPER

Talking to Foreign Fighters: Socio-Economic Push versus Existential Pull Factors

The research acquired primary data through interviews with foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, the families and friends of such fighters, and other online supporters of jihadism, to better understand the process by which these fighters radicalized and their motivations for travelling to Syria or Iraq. Between mid-2014 and early 2016 130 interviews were completed…

Working Paper 2016 Title
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Trying to Talk to Terrorists: Ethical and Methodological Challenges in Canada

Scholars have long shied away from talking to terrorists. This is because there are significant methodological and ethical problems posed by such research. How can we manage those challenges and facilitate such research? Terrorism scholars face a unique challenge: accessing “primary data.” Most social sciences use interviews with those they are studying as an essential…

Working Paper 2016 Title
WORKING PAPER

The Future of Right-Wing Terrorism in Canada

What is the range of likely scenarios for future right-wing terrorism in Canada, based on connections to radical movements in the US and Europe? Which factors or actions may mitigate the most likely scenar­ios? How might the future of Canadian right-wing terrorism be distinct from those of the US and Europe? There has been a…

Working Paper 2016 Title
WORKING PAPER

Jihad in the Jazeera: Explaining The Islamic State’s Growing Insurgent Threat in Egypt

Why did Wilayat Sinai – The Islamic State’s affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula – evolve to become an unprecedented challenge to the Egyptian state? From 2012 to 2015, militant attacks in the Sinai have increased tenfold, to over 100 attacks per month on average in 2015. Egyptian military casualties are estimated to be over 700…

Working Paper 2016 Title
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Research into How Resources are Acquired, Moved and Used to Support Acts of Terrorism

The study was directed to answer six questions on terrorist resourcing in Canada through a comparative analysis that identified: resourcing activities; actors involved; interconnections of activities; importance of different forms; implications of the activities; means of response; and, the relative value of conducting analysis through the Terrorist Resourcing Model (TRM) lens. The Canadian approach to…

Working Paper 2016 Title
WORKING PAPER

Social impacts of the securitized arrival experiences of in-Canada refugee claimants

This multi-sited research included qualitative interviews with 19 in-Canada refugee claimants declared convention refugees under the new (since Dec 1, 2012) immigration legislation. The research sought to answer two questions: (i) What are the effects of the securitization of migration policies insofar as success in integration and feelings of trust and belonging; and (ii) Are…

Working Paper 2016 Title
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Analyzing the formal and informal roles of women in security and justice in Yemen: Reflections for future considerations

This paper is part of a larger project which examines the roles and agency of women in counterterrorism practices. This paper specifically asks: what formal and informal roles have women played in the provision of security in Yemen, and how may this inform domestic post-conflict security considerations, as well as international security concerns? Yemen is…

Working Paper 2016 Title
WORKING PAPER

Cheering on the Jihad: An Exploration of Women’s Participation in Online Pro-jihadist Networks

This paper poses the following questions: Can identifiable patterns of engagement by female posters be discerned based on content of posts? Does the type of the jihadist group studied have any appreciable effect on female members’ posting content? This paper presents the findings of two separate, but inter-related, studies of the posting activities of women…

Working Paper 2016 Title
WORKING PAPER

Teaching CVE: a review of the Preventing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation in Australia handbook, and challenges across policy and practice

(1) What are some of the key issues and challenges that emerged following the release of the Preventing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation in Australia (PVERA) handbook? (2) What lessons that can be drawn from the content and public reception of the PVERA handbook? Schools and community organizations have recently become an important focus of the…

Working Paper 2016 Title
WORKING PAPER

Assessment of the state of knowledge: Connections between research on the social psychology of the Internet and violent extremism

This paper seeks to answer the question: How does social psychology contribute to our understanding of the link between the Internet and violent extremism? There seems to be little doubt that the Internet is increasingly implicated in radicalization processes. Yet the mechanisms underlying the link between the Internet and violent extremism, and their relative importance,…

Working Paper 2016 Title
WORKING PAPER

Bridging the National Security Accountability Gap: A Three-Part System to Modernize Canada’s Inadequate Review of National Security

This paper examines existing challenges associated with the current structure of national security accountability review in Canada. It then draws on best practices in other jurisdictions to propose a systematic overall of the Canadian national security review system. The paper hopes to contribute to current discussions about reform in this area. It focuses particular attention…

Working Paper 2016 Title
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Taking Hoaxes Seriously: Characteristics of Terrorism Hoaxes and their Perpetrators

What can existing literature and available data tell us about terrorism hoaxes (i.e. those incidents that are believed to be acts of serious terrorism, but do not actually involve any real risk of harm)? Terrorist hoaxes do not result in death or harm to people or property, but they do impose costs on governments and…

Working Paper 2016 Title
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Impromptu Initiative: Security Certificates and Scale

This paper offers some background and theoretical framing as part of a larger project on the Canadian Security Certificate Initiative. Here I consider questions about different ways of thinking about responses to national security and how they contrast with security concerns that do not invoke the need for secrecy. The use of secret information in…

Working Paper 2016 Title
WORKING PAPER

Policies and Responsibilities for Governing Violent Extremism at Ontario Universities

This research looks at the governance of violent extremism on Ontario university campuses. Specifically, it explores: 1) how Ontario universities are governed; 2) how student organizations (such as clubs) and student governments are governed, and; 3) pre-existing policies that could apply to the governance of violent extremism. The policies of ten universities and the governance…

Working Paper 2015 Title
WORKING PAPER

Traits de personnalité et terrorisme

Plusieurs chercheurs ont conclu que les traits de personnalité ne peuvent pas être liés au terrorisme. Cette conclusion est maintenant admise comme un fait dans les cercles académiques et gouvernementaux, ainsi que dans le monde du renseignement. Cependant, un examen méthodique de la documentation scientifique pertinente n’a révélé aucune preuve à cet effet, et n’a…

Working Paper 2015 Title
WORKING PAPER

Personality Traits and Terrorism

Many researchers claim that individuals who engage in terrorism do not share distinct personality traits, a claim well accepted in academia, government, and the intelligence community. A thorough review of the literature, however, has yielded no evidence for this claim and found only three studies where the personality traits of terrorists were measured. Each study…

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