Brussels Bombings Threaten European Unity (Ian Lesser, James McBride, CFR)

Europe is on high alert after twin bombings in Brussels killed more than thirty people, bringing mass-casualty terror to the doorstep of the European Union's headquarters. The attacks, claimed by the self-declared Islamic State, came just days after the capture of Salah Abdeslam in Brussels, where the planner of the November 2015 Paris attacks had been hiding for months. The Belgian capital is at the center of European jihadism due to the large number of foreign fighters returning from Syria, says Ian Lesser of the German Marshall Fund. The bombings "have given ammunition to those in the populist right who want to close national borders," undermining European unity even as governments struggle to improve intelligence cooperation to avert future attacks, he says.

http://www.cfr.org/belgium/brussels-bombings-threaten-european-unity/p37680