London's Riots & Europe's Security

The riots this past week in the United Kingdom, coming on the heels of the terrorist attack in Norway last month, the protests in Greece and the tsunami and subsequent nuclear accident in Japan earlier this spring, should be a wake-up call to Europe and the rest of the developed world that it cannot ignore the domestic side of the national security equation. It is time to dispense with the hubris of thinking that natural disasters, civil unrest or terrorism produces instability only in countries like Haiti or Iraq. And as Reuters correspondent Peter Apps notes, while a massive police presence in London has now tamped down the violence, "[the police], too, face the drastic spending cuts that will affect everything from the military to social benefits and inner-city services." Certainly, the unrest has shaken the perception of Britain as a global "safe haven."