By Tina Huang
This summer I travelled to London to conduct research with Peter Neumann, Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College. At ICSR, I co-authored a piece with Professor Neumann on how to best counter terrorism financing and assisted with his research regarding the evolving War on Terror after the Trump Administration.
Why did you choose this particular country/internship?
I selected to work at ICSR because Peter Neumann is one of the most prominent experts in the area of terrorism and political violence. The opportunity to work alongside Professor Neumann was a fun challenge as I had to learn as quickly as possible to co-author on a topic I previously had little knowledge about. Furthermore, I am concentrating in terrorism at SSP and was attracted to ICSR because of their cutting edge research regarding counterterrorism and countering violent extremism. I wanted to expand my expertise in the field and also wanted to see how a European think tank operates. I found that the research fellows are always actively gathering interviews, compiling data, and analyzing quantitative information to churn out reports every few months. Just a few of their most recent reports include: Foreign Fighters and the Returnee Threat, Women and the ‘Caliphate’, Terrorist Financing, The Crime-Terror Nexus, and more.
How will this experience help you in your job search and career?
Upon graduation, I have considered working in CT in Europe. Working at ICSR has allowed me to better understand the European working environment and grow my network within the CT field. I was able to meet with other CT professionals in the area who provided me with advice on how to search for jobs in Europe. Furthermore, working with Professor Neumann was particularly helpful in better understanding the academia career field and whether research and analysis is what I want to pursue.
What are two interesting things about the United Kingdom that the average person doesn’t know?
One thing that really stood out to me is the UK’s use of CCTV in nearly every single public space. I thought this was interesting because British citizens are being overtly surveilled from stopping your car to allow pedestrians to cross the street to enjoying a beer at a pub. I imagine something like this would receive immense blowback in the US, but the UK boasts about its CCTV because I saw signs on many establishments stating that CCTV was monitoring the area. Another thing, which is more terrorism related, is that the UK government is harshly cracking down on potential terrorists. The difference between counter terrorism in the US and UK is that in the US a person must physically take action that indicates terrorism for law enforcement to arrest them. In the UK, if law enforcement is able to prove that a person has been engaging in extremism material and has the potential to carry out an attack (even though they have not done so yet) law enforcement is able to detain the person. While I was there, I read about a far right wing extremist who was sentenced 4 years in jail for obtaining extremist materials and potential weapons.
Why did you choose this particular country/internship?
I selected to work at ICSR because Peter Neumann is one of the most prominent experts in the area of terrorism and political violence. The opportunity to work alongside Professor Neumann was a fun challenge as I had to learn as quickly as possible to co-author on a topic I previously had little knowledge about. Furthermore, I am concentrating in terrorism at SSP and was attracted to ICSR because of their cutting edge research regarding counterterrorism and countering violent extremism. I wanted to expand my expertise in the field and also wanted to see how a European think tank operates. I found that the research fellows are always actively gathering interviews, compiling data, and analyzing quantitative information to churn out reports every few months. Just a few of their most recent reports include: Foreign Fighters and the Returnee Threat, Women and the ‘Caliphate’, Terrorist Financing, The Crime-Terror Nexus, and more.
How will this experience help you in your job search and career?
Upon graduation, I have considered working in CT in Europe. Working at ICSR has allowed me to better understand the European working environment and grow my network within the CT field. I was able to meet with other CT professionals in the area who provided me with advice on how to search for jobs in Europe. Furthermore, working with Professor Neumann was particularly helpful in better understanding the academia career field and whether research and analysis is what I want to pursue.
What are two interesting things about the United Kingdom that the average person doesn’t know?
One thing that really stood out to me is the UK’s use of CCTV in nearly every single public space. I thought this was interesting because British citizens are being overtly surveilled from stopping your car to allow pedestrians to cross the street to enjoying a beer at a pub. I imagine something like this would receive immense blowback in the US, but the UK boasts about its CCTV because I saw signs on many establishments stating that CCTV was monitoring the area. Another thing, which is more terrorism related, is that the UK government is harshly cracking down on potential terrorists. The difference between counter terrorism in the US and UK is that in the US a person must physically take action that indicates terrorism for law enforcement to arrest them. In the UK, if law enforcement is able to prove that a person has been engaging in extremism material and has the potential to carry out an attack (even though they have not done so yet) law enforcement is able to detain the person. While I was there, I read about a far right wing extremist who was sentenced 4 years in jail for obtaining extremist materials and potential weapons.