The Paul Wilkinson Memorial Lecture constitutes the annual highpoint of CSTPV’s calendar. By holding it, we honour both the memory and the enduring legacy of our founding father, Professor Paul Wilkinson (CBE) who – together with Bruce Hoffman – founded CSTPV back in August 1994. As such, the Memorial Lecture is explicitly designed as an occasion to look both forward and back.

We look back because it is important to remember where we have come from; and the foundational achievements upon which we build every day. Paul Wilkinson pioneered the academic study of terrorism in the UK as far back as c. 1973. In pursuing such an unfashionable subject down long decades, he showed both huge tenacity and personal courage. His abiding interest in how liberal democracies should respond to the challenge of terrorism without betraying their own core values still shapes CSTPV’s research and teaching today.

We look forward because we are celebrating a living and evolving tradition of terrorism scholarship at St Andrews. By convention, the Memorial Lecture is an occasion for an outstanding scholar of global renown to present new research that significantly advances our understanding of terrorism – in keeping with the example set by Paul Wilkinson during his long career. Far earlier than most, he recognised that terrorism was developing into one the most urgent and intractable policy challenges of our age. CSTPV is proud to honour that towering achievement

A fuller account of Paul Wilkinson’s life and achievements can be found here.