E D I T O

On September 11, 2001, the world toppled into horror, dread and astonishment. Three airliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, wreaking havoc and death. Al Qaeda claimed these suicide bombings, the bloodiest ever perpetrated on American soil. More than three thousand people died in these attacks, waged in the name of a totalitarian, fundamentalist and violent conception of Islam. Beyond America, the unholy West was targeted right in the heart. From then on, the fight against Islamist terrorism has emerged as the major security challenge of the past two decades.

Twenty years after the World Trade Center attack, the jihadist phenomenon has kept spreading. Now, it affects each continent and its supporters have increased considerably despite the weakening of Al Qaeda and the military defeat of Daesh in Syria.

France has paid a heavy price in this relentless fight against the jihadist hydra. Since the killings of Mohamed Merah and the terrorist attacks in Nice and Paris (Charlie Hebdo, the “Hyper Cacher” and of November 13, 2015), the country has faced a wave of unprecedented terrorist violence. Abroad, France has been fighting against Islamist terrorism, particularly in the Sahara-Sahel Strip where 52 soldiers have lost their lives in “Serval” and “Barkhane” operations.

However, the fight against jihadism cannot be reduced to a security challenge exclusively. Terrorism is the modus operandi of radical Islamism, which is both a religious and political ideology and keeps undermining our republican model insidiously.

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The fight is not over: we must address the challenges, the means and the prospects relentlessly.

In this context, ELNET has created the "European Summit on Islamist Radicalization and the Terrorist Threat" with the support of former Prime Minister Manuel Valls. This Summit has become an unmissable event, whose ambition is to decipher the mechanisms of Islamist ideology and its harmful power, by offering an unprecedented platform for discussions.

The first three sessions were held on January 11, March 22 and June 23, 2021. They brought together French and European leading experts, academics, journalists and policymakers, who discussed Islamist separatism, European jihadism, the fight against terrorism on a European scale, cyberjihadism and deradicalization policies.

The final session will take place on Monday December 6, 2021 in Paris. It will assess the “war on terror” 20 years after 9/11 and in the wake of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. The strategic and geopolitical consequences of such an overturning will be analyzed through regional and international perspectives, questioning Europe’s ability to cooperate with its American and Israeli allies. The lessons of the November 2015 Paris attacks will also be analyzed, in the context of the biggest terror trial ever opened in France.

Dr. Arié Bensemhoun, CEO

David Khalfa, Program Director

ELNET France