Presentation: The Global Terrorism Index (GTI)

March 9, 2022

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) is an annual report produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP). Now on its 9th edition, the GTI provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism. It analyses a number of vital aspects of terrorism such as the socio-economic conditions under which it occurs, how terrorism changes over time, the geopolitical drivers and ideological aims of terrorist groups and the strategies used by terrorists.

In the previous edition, the GTI 2020 reported a decrease in deaths from terrorism for a fifth consecutive year. The drop of deaths by 15.5% was due to a reduction on the impact of terrorism in 103 countries. The decrease in deaths from terrorism was perceived in the MENA region, Russia, Eurasia, South America, and South Asia, with a 20% reduction. Yet terrorism became more widespread in other regions, concentrating in sub-Saharan Africa. The country with the highest increase in terrorism was Burkina Faso, followed by Sri Lanka.

Moreover, the economic impact of terrorism had decreased for five consecutive years, amounting to US$26.4 billion in 2019. The 2020 GTI identified a shifting landscape in terrorism, with the spread of ISIL affiliate groups in sub-Saharan Africa and the emergence of far-right terrorism across Western Europe and North America.

In this presentation, the panellists will discuss the trends in terrorism, radicalisation and violent extremism particularly in the Sahel region.

Speakers
Rida Lyammouri
Senior Fellow
Rida Lyammouri is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South. His research activities focus on geopolitics and international relations in the West African Sahel, a region he has worked on for about a decade. He has extensive experience supporting both governmental and non-governmental organizations in the areas of international aid, development, and security. Some of the topics he covers include countering violent extremism (CVE), conflict prevention and conflict sensitivity, humanitarian access, and migration. Mr. Lyammouri has contributed to numerous in-depth research and analysis reports aiming at building deeper understanding of regional and domestic challenges. He is often solicited by various stakeholders to provide policy recommendations on how to address va ...
Serge Stroobants
Director Europe and the MENA region, Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)
Serge Stroobants is the Director of Operations for Europe and the MENA region at the Institute for Economics and Peace. He is a former Colonel in the Belgian Armed Forces with an academic specialization in political sciences, international relations, security and defense, global risk analysis, foresight and crisis management. He holds degrees from the Belgian Royal Military Academy, the Free University of Brussels, Université Jean Moulin Lyon III (France), the German General Staff College and Vesalius College. He is an Assistant-Professor at Vesalius College in Brussels, teaching courses on NATO and the Transatlantic approaches to security and on Global terrorism and radicalization. He is considered to be a senior academic specialist on global terrorism and radicalization in B ...
Youssef Tobi
International Relations Specialist
Tobi Youssef has joined the Policy Center for the New South in 2017. He is currently working on Politics and Governance in the Maghreb Region; his areas of expertise are geopolitics, political risk and nation building. Youssef Tobi obtained a Master Degree at Sciences Po Lyon  where he wrote two thesis on “ the role of Moroccan Bank in Africa, a non-state actor in service of the Diplomacy”  and the“ Chasm between the mediatic and associative representation of refugees : a case study”.  Prior to working at the Think tank, Tobi Youssef participated in a Social Entrepreneurship Project in Beirut, Lebanon and conducted an internship in a NGO based in Marseille where he assisted refugees and helped raise funds. ...
Rama Yade
Director, Africa Center Atlantic Council
Ambassador Rama Yade is director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and senior fellow for the Europe Center. She is also a teacher of African affairs at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco and, since 2017, at Sciences Po Paris. Prior to joining the Council, she was a consultant for the World Bank, advising the institution on education, youth, sports, human capital, and disability issues in Africa. She also has strong experience in the private sector as an editor in London, where she overviewed a collection of books about African millennials, and as director for development at a French consulting firm in corporate and social responsibility. Ambassador Yade has over a decade of experience working in French, European, and international politics. At the age of thirt ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    November 2, 2021
    In the Sahel, and Central Mali in particular, the proliferation of armed groups over the past decade has resulted in formal and informal non-state governance structures. This paper assesses the various definitions and typologies associated with rebel and jihadist governance in order to better understand the mechanisms of governance provision used by key non-state governance providers in Central Mali.   ...
  • Authors
    Pascal Chaigneau
    Eugène Berg
    Rodolphe Monnet
    Jacques Gravereau
    Jérémy Ghez
    Olivier Tramond
    Niagalé Bagayoko
    Alain Oudot de Dainville
    Jérôme Evrard
    Coordination de l’ouvrage: Imane Lahrich
    Fatine Cherkaoui
    October 28, 2021
    Depuis l’accession au trône du Roi Mohammed VI, l’Afrique s’est transformée en priorité de la diplomatie marocaine. Sur le plan économique, l’Afrique est devenue le prolongement naturel du Maroc en termes d’investissements et d’implantations. Pascal Chaigneau s’attarde sur les relations affaiblies Europe-Afrique, l’ambitieuse relation Chine-Afrique ainsi que les relations entre la Russie, les Etats-Unis, la Turquie ou encore les pays du Golf et l’Afrique. Ce chapitre traite égalemen ...
  • October 15, 2021
    La bande sahélo-saharienne connaît, depuis quelques années, une instabilité liée à plusieurs facteurs: le terrorisme, les effets du changement climatique, les tensions ethniques et commun ...
  • Authors
    Johannes Claes
    Kars de Bruijne
    Sophie Mertens
    Eman Ragab
    Clara-Auguste Süß
    September 20, 2021
    The COVID-19 pandemic has had a cataclysmic impact on all aspects of the functioning of our world. The relevance of the possibility of the spread of a global virus with the spread of terrorism is not immediately obvious as it is difficult for a direct causal link to be scientifically established. However, taking into consideration how state responses and pre-existing socioeconomic grievances can be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic can lead to innovative findings on how terrorist gr ...
  • Authors
    Sous la direction de
    Joseph Alain Sissao
    Yazid Benhadda
    Hanae Bezad
    Afua Boatemaa Yakohene
    Salma Daoudi
    Hajar El Alaoui
    Souha Majidi
    Alioune Ndiaye
    Jo Ann Takyiwah Sackey
    June 23, 2021
    Cette édition du Rapport géopolitique de l’Afrique, la quatrième, s’inscrit dans la droite ligne de la philosophie et de l’esprit du Policy Center for the New South, qui milite pour une Afrique partie intégrante du Sud global et acteur, en devenir, dans les affaires mondiales. L’Afrique comme continent et comme espace est le théâtre où se déploient les actions des Africains pour réagir et interagir avec les conjonctures internationales, et l’Afrique comme populations et institutions ...
  • June 4, 2021
    Pour ce troisième épisode, Abdelhak Bassou évoque la menace terroriste au Sahel et les moyens de la combattre dans la région. En présentant le G5 Sahel et son rôle, notre spécialiste nous apporte une vision panoramique des enjeux sécuritaire dans la région. ...
  • May 4, 2021
    The Sahelian states of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso continue to face unprecedented violence arising from multidimensional conflicts. According to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (2019), “the Sahel has experienced the most rapid increase in activity by militant groups of any region in Africa in recent years. Violent events involving extremist groups in the region have doubled every year since 2015”. In addition to the presence of multiple violent extremist organizations (VEO ...
  • Authors
    Sabine Cessou
    January 4, 2021
    Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso… L’insécurité fait tache d’huile au Sahel, menaçant de s’étendre aux pays du Golfe de Guinée. Le terrorisme a entraîné la formation de milices d’auto-défense communautaires, et ainsi créé des « friches » sécuritaires dans tout le Sahel, du Bassin du lac Tchad à la région du Liptako-Gourma. Les budgets consacrés à la défense augmentent, contrairement à ceux qui soutiennent le capital humain, santé et éducation. Dans un contexte de croissance démographique so ...
  • December 16, 2020
    President Trump may not enact his threatened US drawdown of troops from the Sahel, but President Biden will still face pressure to end America’s “forever wars” and reduce the number of American lives and treasure lost to fighting terrorism in Africa. If the United States pulls back from...
  • Authors
    Sous la direction de
    September 3, 2020
    Au moment où elle fêtait le passage à 2020, l’Afrique était loin de soupçonner que l’année à laquelle elle faisait ses adieux, aurait le funeste “privilège” de porter dans ses registres d’Etat-civil, la naissance d’un virus qui allait paralyser le monde, dans la première moitié de l’année suivante. C’est sur cette Afrique de l’année pré-Covid-19 que portent les différents papiers du présent Rapport. Les uns, reflétant les espoirs, les ambitions et les projets africains et, les autre ...