The Society for Terrorism Research (STR), the School of Law & Social Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London and the Conflict, Violence and Terrorism Research Centre (CVTRC) are delighted to announce that retired Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service Neil Basu will present the opening Keynote address at the 17th annual STR conference. The conference will be held on July 7th and 8th, 2025, on the University’s historic Egham campus.
Neil Basu will deliver the opening Keynote of the Society for Terrorism Research Conference on the 20th anniversary of the London Transport attacks on 7/7. Basu is a retired Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service where he served from 1992-2022. He is the only officer to have held the top three positions in Counter Terrorism Policing and led the operational response to the 2017 terror attacks. In 2018 he succeeded Sir Mark Rowley to become the first Asian to lead the UK’s CT Policing organisation. His memoir Turmoil: 30 Years of Policing, Politics and Prejudice is published with Aurum in April 2025. It chronicles his rise to the top, the deep-seated discrimination he encountered at every level, and the immense responsibility of investigating terrorism during his final years in public service.
This year STR will focus on the raison d’être and future of terrorism research in the context of overlapping global crises. Participants are invited to identify the key evolving topics and debates of this multi-crisis era, particularly in light of emerging hybrid terrorist ideologies and terrorist use of technological innovation and AI. In the process the conference hopes to identify new and emerging research agendas, synergies and collaborations, in addition to showcasing cutting-edge research.
Basu says, “I am honoured to be asked to deliver this speech on the anniversary of a day of days - a day that invites sombre reflection and humility about what we have faced and not a little trepidation about what is to come. I hope we can explore that together - perhaps even come up with some answers. If the time to do that is not now, on this day, then when is it?”
Hosted at Royal Holloway’s picturesque Egham campus, the 2025 conference brings together academics and practitioners working to understand the causes of terrorism and how to counter it.
Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL) is a leading research centre in terrorism studies, and home to academics with a range of expertise, including the psychology of terrorism, history of terrorism, critical approaches to terrorism, definitions of terrorism and gender and terrorism. RHUL also offers the MSc in Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Studies, and hosts the Conflict, Violence and Terrorism Research Centre co-directed by Dr. Akil Awan and Dr. Elizabeth Pearson, who along with Ieva Cechaviciute are the organisers of this year’s STR Conference.
Please send any inquiries to STR2025@rhul.ac.uk and submit your abstracts via the Call for Papers here. The deadline for submissions is 11 April.
