Today, NMBU political scientist Stig Jarle Hansen will testify before the UK Foreign Affairs Committee in connection with their international counter-terrorism policy. Watch him live from Westminster.
Hansen’s evidence will focus on the Sahel and African jihadism.
A transcript of the session will be taken and published on the Foreign Affairs Committee’s website.
Agenda of the Inquiry:
Nb. UK times given. Norway is one hour ahead of the UK:
14:30 - Oral evidence by:
- Nuradin Dirie, Senior Advisor at European Institute of Peace
- Roger Middleton, Managing Director at Sabi Insight
- Dr Nisar Majid, Research Director (Somalia), Peace & Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep) at London School of Economics
15:15 - Oral evidence by:
- John Deverell CBE, Independent Consultant at First Call Partners, and former senior military officer and Director of Defence Diplomacy at Ministry of Defence
15:45: Oral evidence by:
- Stig Jarle Hansen, Norwegian political scientist, historian and author and Associate Professor at Norwegian University of Life Sciences
- Jonathan Guiffard, Senior Fellow, Defence and Africa at Institute Montaigne
- Dr Nicholas Westcott, Professor of Practice at Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS
About the UK's international counter-terrorism inquiry
This inquiry will scrutinise the UK’s ongoing global counter-terrorism efforts. It will examine the actions taken by the UK to manage, contain and prevent ongoing acts of terrorism emanating overseas, with a view to assessing counter-terrorism policy in light of the 2021 Integrated Review and its 2023 Refresh. It will further examine the security, diplomatic and political objectives the UK prioritises in the evolving terrorism landscape.
The inquiry aims to map the motivations, sources and locations of the most pressing current terrorist threats and to consider how they may evolve in the next decade. It will also examine FCDO policy with reference to different forms of terrorism, including ecological, extreme left, extreme right, narco-terrorism, and religious fundamentalist terrorism.
It will consider in particular the implications for the UK of regional instability in Afghanistan, the Middle East, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa; and examine how the UK can use its influence to best effect in bilateral and multilateral security partnerships.
[Source: UK Foreign Affairs Committee website]
About Stig Jarle Hansen
Stig Jarle Hansen works primarily within the fields of organized crime, political theory, and religion and politics (including religious terror). He has a special interest in British idealist and Islamic political thought processes. Geographically, his main focus is in the wider Red Sea region, Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Kenya.
Hansen conducted annual field research in Mogadishu in the years 2005 to 2014, and also in the Middle East. His book Al-Shabaab in Somalia was critically acclaimed by Foreign Policy and The Economist, amongst others.
Hansen is a world expert on Islamism in the Horn of Africa and the Shabaab Group, and has commented for CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters, CCTV 4 and many other international media outlets. He is currently leading NMBU's Master programme in International Relations.
