Terrorism 3.0 – Current Security Challenges and Prospects

Although the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq suffered serious setbacks in the last years, it does not mean that the fight against Jihadist groups was won. Affiliates of ISIS from Afghanistan to Nigeria are still strong, controlling territories and launching devastating attacks. Regional allies of al-Qaeda are conducting assassinations in Somalia and Kenya and have the capacity to destabilise whole subregions in the Sahel and the Horn. Furthermore, new bridgeheads of Jihadism were established in Mozambique and the DRC. Though the number of large-scale terrorist attacks declined in Europe, smaller actions are regular. The aim of this volume is to provide a better understanding of the current status, trends and the future prospects of terrorism around the world and to contribute to the academic discussion about violent extremism through seven relevant publications in the topic of Terrorism 3.0 – the state of terrorism after the fall of the ISIS. Reading these papers, it will become evident that after the domination of al-Qaeda (Terrorism 1.0) and the Islamic State (Terrorism 2.0) a new nature of Jihadist terrorism will emerge, and its more divided and fragmented character will make it much more complicated to cope with.