When Erroll Southers isn’t jetting off to Europe to dole out his expertise on violent extremism and counter-terrorism, you may catch him interviewing former neo-Nazis and skinheads for his next book.
The director of homegrown violent extremism studies at USC’s Safe Communities Institute says he has more faith in government to protect the nation today than he did before the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But he argues it’s not only government we should rely on.
“We should first put faith in our communities,” said Southers, a former FBI agent who is managing director of the international security consulting firm TAL Global Corp. “Terrorism is a local event, whether it’s inspired by an international threat or not. It would include the federal government (but) we are no stronger than we are at a community level.”
That means increasing awareness and education about threats the nation faces — including homegrown terrorism as seen in the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013 and in the Orlando nightclub shooting in June — and getting to know one’s neighbors before an incident happens. It also means applying preparedness efforts like the ones used for natural disasters such as earthquakes to terror threats, he said.
Americans must also understand that terrorism is a challenge that can never be eliminated. In other words, containment — reducing the risk, lessening its effects and detecting and deterring terror plots whenever possible — is our “best strategy,” he said.
Southers, who lost a friend at the World Trade Center on 9/11, spends several times a year in Israel, where terror attacks on buses and in cafes have occurred for decades. But there, businesses are usually open the next day.
“It’s a realistic understanding that life goes on and we’re not going to change our lives based on what people want to do to us,” he said.
