The Covid-19 contagion has emerged amid a rapidly changing geopolitical environment and technological transformations These developments have created new opportunities and challenges for terrorist groups Whereas terrorist groups are struggling to launch conventional attacks during the lockdown, they have a captive young audience on the internet to recruit and radicalise Similarly, though travel restrictions have limited terrorists’ mobility, they are using the time to develop new skills This article examines the opportunities and challenges for terrorists to provide an assessment of the evolving strategic landscape The persistence of religious terrorism, despite the weakening of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, alongside the emergence of the far-right terrorism in the West, renders the existing terrorist landscape complex and chronic While the internet and social media revolutionised terrorist recruitment and radicalisation, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, drone technology and 3D-printing can potentially change the face of future terrorist violence © 2020 Department of Security Studies and Criminology
COVID-19: a challenge or opportunity for terrorist groups?