Statecraft

Commentary: Strengthen democracy, hug a spy

If there’s anything we’ve learned from horrors like the nightclub shootings in Orlando, the truck attack in Nice, and the beheading of a priest in Rouen, it’s that our security services are far from perfect.

We have learned, for example, that Adel Kermiche, one of the killers of Father Jacques Hamel, wore an electronic tag because he had been recognized as potentially dangerous, but a judge had allowed it turned off for four hours, time Kermiche used to murder the priest.

Clearly, there is no obvious path to ensure security for European or North American states, currently the targets of choice for jihadists. But what we’re seeing now is a shift in attitudes toward intelligence-gathering services.

“Public opinion in Belgium, France and other European countries threatened by jihadist attacks has swung dramatically toward security,” write two U.S. security experts, Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense, and Adam Klein of the Center for a New American Security in Foreign Affairs.