TERRORISM: Study Finds U.K. at Greatest Risk of Terror Attack

Published 4 August 2011

A recent study found that the United Kingdom was at greater risk from terrorist attacks than any other Western nation; the study, complied by Maplecroft and dubbed the Terrorism Risk Index, ranked the United Kingdom at higher risk than the United States, France, and Spain; overall the United Kingdom ranked thirty-eighth behind nations like Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, which topped the list in that order; the U.K. ranked higher than other nations due to the internal threat from dissident Irish Republican terrorists; "The U.K. continues to face terrorist threats posed by Islamist militants and dissident Irish republicans. The Islamist terrorist threat has both international and domestic elements," the report wrote; it added, "The majority of perpetrated attacks continue to be committed by dissident Irish Republican terrorists"