SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF FAILURE: LESSONS FROM THE SOUTHPORT INQUIRY

A first report that should be read in every security agency, police service and threat assessment unit — not just in the United Kingdom
Everything described in the Southport Inquiry Phase 1 Report is connected. The failures are not discrete events in a chain; they are mutually reinforcing systemic weaknesses that compounded one another over years. That is the central lesson, and it is one that practitioners in the defence and security community will recognise immediately — because they have seen it before, at home and abroad. This short series will also address "before" and finally ask the question "What next?"

By Euan Grant, Senior Research Associate, U K Defence Forum

When it comes to terrorism, the 22nd of May is a black day for the United Kingdom. Indeed, first in 2013, soldier Lee Rigby was savagely murdered by two jihadists in Woolwich, writes Olivier Giutta of Globsec

Then in 2017, one jihadist, the British-Libyan 23-year-old Salman Abedi, affiliated to the terror group Islamic State (ISIS) stormed into the Manchester Arena and waited for concertgoers to exit after the end of American pop sensation Ariana Grande to detonate his bomb killing 22. ISIS had called for attacks on concert halls over the summer of 2015 then the Bataclan attack took place in Paris on 13 November 2015. ISIS had also time and again called for attacks against Western children. The Manchester Arena suicide attack was clearly disgustingly targeting kids and teenagers.