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The Lawfare Podcast

Christine Fair on the Sri Lanka Attacks

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

History, News, National Security, Law, Terrorism, Current Events, Military, International Law, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, International Relations, Politics, Diplomacy, Rule Of Law, Government, Constitutional Law

4.76.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2019

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Christine Fair is an expert on South Asian politics and extremist groups, and it's been a bad few weeks in Sri Lanka. A major terrorist attack, the largest since 9/11, hit multiple locations targeting Christians on Easter morning. The violence was different from the usual terrorism that rocks Sri Lanka from time to time, and Benjamin Wittes asked Christine to come in and talk us through it.

What's going on in the island nation? How does it map onto the history of ethnic tensions between Tamils and Sinhalese? And what does it mean for the future of Muslim extremism in South Asia?

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair.

0:14.0

That's patreon.com slash law fair.

0:18.0

Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings,

0:22.0

rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.

0:29.0

The first we know about the nature of the bombs is that the bomb structure is right out of the ISIS playbook that they used in Europe.

0:42.0

They use the same explosives, they use the same constructions of ball bearings and nails.

0:46.0

The explosive itself, to me, was quite interesting because it's not the same explosive that the tunnel tigers had historically used,

0:54.0

or even that the South Asia groups, they tend to use RDX, and this was a very different explosive.

1:00.0

So that, to me, was the imprimatur of ISIS.

1:04.0

Where this does squarely intersect with the Sri Lankan domestic politics is what we're seeing right now, right?

1:10.0

Is the Buddhist community begins attacking Muslims.

1:16.0

This becomes an ever more ripe place for further, I don't like to use the word radicalization, I tend to avoid it.

1:23.0

But further recruitment on behalf of ISIS.

1:26.0

I'm Benjamin Wittes and this is the LawFair podcast May 18th, 2019.

1:32.0

Christine Fair is an expert on South Asian politics and extremist groups.

1:40.0

And you may have noticed that it's been a bad few weeks in Sri Lanka.

1:45.0

A major terrorist attack, actually the largest since 9-11, hit multiple locations targeting Christians on Easter morning.

1:55.0

The violence was different from the usual terrorism that rocks Sri Lanka from time to time.

2:01.0

And I asked Christine to come in and talk us through it.

2:05.0

What's going on in the island nation?

...

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