Nice Attack Shows the Vulnerability of Soft Targets

Nice Attack Shows the Vulnerability of Soft Targets is republished with permission of Stratfor.


How France Will Respond to the Nice Attack

Summary

After a large truck plowed into crowds and killed at least 84 people in Nice late on July 14, French President Francois Hollande announced that the country's state of emergency would be extended for another three months. Hollande also said that border controls would be tightened and that France would show "real force and military action in Syria and Iraq." French authorities confirmed that the main suspect is a 31-year-old Franco-Tunisian man who had a police record for petty crimes but who apparently had not been flagged for terrorist activity and was unknown to intelligence services. The Nice attack is the latest in a series of terrorist plots to target France over the past year and a half and will influence both the country's upcoming presidential campaign and the political debate within the European Union...