Bringing it Home Local Listening Sessions
Oooooh Vienna....
at 5:13pm on Thursday, 31st May 2007......That is where my references to 80s classic pop tunes end!
Once again, I find myself in an airport departure lounge after a day of international schmoozing. Todays theme was community-based counter-terrorism at a conference organised by the OECD. I delivered one of the key note speeches. Oh er. And yes, todays venue was, er, Vienna.
What was reassuring was the extent to which there seemed to be genuine buy-in for the idea that communities need to be central to our responses to counter-terrorism and the idea that security is delivered through consent rather than force - both constant Demos themes in our work on both identity and security.
But the challenge now is how we get this integrated into practical responses. We have been making some progress on this in recent months, but there is still some way to go. And as today reminded me, the international community is very good at rhetoric and platitudes, but it remains to be seen how much of this actually ends up happening on the street corners of the OECD member states. But there was much interest in how Demos work in this area could inform thinking.
For now, over and out. May the peace be with you,
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Please let me know if anything comes out of the OECD on this. Also, all feedback on the book welcome! (Pauline Neville-Jones launched it in Dublin on Monday) Best wishes, Johnny Ryan