We turned our attention to China and Russia. And then terrorism returned.

While the West’s attention has moved away from the once cataclysmic threat of Islamic terrorism to focus on the perils posed by state actors – namely China and Russia – a recent spate of attacks across Europe has placed renewed focus on the issue, as the ongoing war in the Middle East ripples beyond the region.

“With war between Israel, Hamas and the polarization it causes in our society, with the upcoming holiday season, there is a huge risk of terrorist attacks in the European Union,” European Justice Commissioner Ylva Johansson stated amid a meeting in an early December meeting in Brussels between European Union and home affairs ministers.

The European Commission subsequently declared it would make $32.3 million accessible to member states for the protection of sites deemed possible threats, including places of worship. Travel alerts have also been raised going into the holiday season in the wake of the murder of a tourist near the Eiffel Tower last weekend by a suspected assailant who spent four years behind bars had posted a series of tweets regarding the war in Gaza, telling authorities that the conflict served as motivation to kill.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg.