On Wednesday, Republicans Overseas Luxembourg and the American Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg (AMCHAM) held a lunch event at the Cercle Munster in Luxembourg-Grund, with anti-terrorist expert Jean Labrique talking about Terrorism's Impact on the Business World.

Introduced by James O'Neal of AMCHAM, Jean Labrique started by explaining that economies fall when threatened by war. He compared the recent terrorist killings in France and Belgium and compared this to the number of people killed by/in cars in the same countries each year, yet the economic effect of the threat of terrorism is much greater than that of motoring threats. He also referred to the San Bernardino massacre by Islamic State Jihadis and the 13 November Paris terrorist attacks.

He explained that the main threat to industry is security. He revealed that much investment by terrostist financiers in the Middle East is in top brands including hotel groups and automotive manufacturers; these will never be the target of such terrorist activities. The largest danger today is the lack of knowledge and understanding of the cultures of terrorist financing organisations in the Gulf. He also referred to the illegal sale of arms from European manufacturers or intermediaries, to terrorist organisations, often for cash.

He warned that, following the 2008 crash, he predicts that the world will see a crash worse than that experienced in 1929, in the next two years. He advocated the reading of the Koran to be able to get an insight into the thinking of Islamic extremists and the world of Allah.

While his presentation was surprising consice, he did take questions. He make it very clear that he does not trust countries such as Iran regarding current discussions. Regarding China, the issue is not who runs the country but the understanding that their goal is industrial power. He also presented his perspective of wars funding researchers.
 
Guest speaker anti-terrorist expert Jean Labrique is currently Secretary General of Western Defense Studies Institute, a think-tank organisation based in Rome. He has over 30 years of experience in counter-terrorism and intelligence and has been advisor on such matters to Governments and Multinationals alike. His work involves Homeland Security, Criminal Investigations, Counter-Terrorism and Crisis-Management.
 
Photos by Geoff Thompson (above): Jean Labrique; (below): James O'Neal