ABSTRACT
The UK has had vast historical domestic experience with terrorism. Protracted confl ict and ever-elusive peace prospects in Northern Ireland have preoccupied the attention and resources of British government and security institutions for decades. Despite the government making decisive inroads in alleviating the threat posed by domestic terrorism, its very focus on developments in Northern Ireland has defl ected attention from producing complete assessments of the threat posed by foreign-based terrorist groups to the UK. Although the UK has not experienced ‘spectacular’ acts of terrorism perpetrated by international groups such as those that occurred in the USA on 11 September 2001,1 it would be a gross exaggeration to suggest that international terrorism has not gained an important foothold in Britain.
