The man who dissected terrorism dies at 74

Published on Friday 12 August 2011 17:00

TRIBUTES have been paid to Professor Paul Wilkinson, the Scottish academic and one of the world's leading experts on terrorism, who has died at the age of 74.

Professor Wilkinson, whose incisive analysis on terrorist incidents across the globe was regularly featured in The Scotsman, was the Emeritus Professor in International Relations at St Andrews University.

The professor, who survived an assassination attempt by the IRA 21 years ago, frequently advised the UK Government on terrorism-related matters and was the co-founder of the university's Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV), now widely acknowledged as a global centre of excellence in its field.

Professor Louise Richardson, the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of St Andrews University, led the tributes to Professor Wilkinson. She said: "Paul was a personal friend. He treated younger scholars in the field with unfailing generosity and courtesy. It is hard to imagine St Andrews without him but he has left a lasting legacy in the School of International Relations and the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence."

Professor Wilkinson, who retired in October 2007, was born in Harrow, Middlesex, and graduated with a BA in Modern History and Politics at University College Swansea. He started his academic career in 1966 at the University of Wales before being appointed to the first Chair in International Relations at Aberdeen University in 1979 where he began to establish his reputation as a leading expert on terrorism.

Ten years later he became the first Chair in International Relations at St Andrews and in 1990 was made the first head of the new Department of International Relations. That same year he was one of the speakers at a major conference on terrorism, attended by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Peter Imbert and the Foreign Office minister William Waldegrave, who survived an IRA assassination attempt when a bomb, placed under the speaker's lectern, was discovered by chance.

Recalling the incident at Professor Wilkinson's retiral, Prof Alex Schmid, the director of CSTPV, said: "A bomb which the IRA had placed under his speaker's desk was discovered just in time by a sound technician checking the microphone Paul was to speak into. 'The police are delighted to be able to study an intact bomb', was Paul's dry comment after this close encounter with death.

"In a strange way the incident was also a compliment to Paul. He had something to say that the terrorists did not want to be said. He was taken seriously, both by the terrorists and by the government. His views carried weight and continue to count."

Prof Schmid continued "The way we view terrorism has been influenced by Paul Wilkinson.He has left his mark in the field of terrorism studies. There is little doubt in my mind that he is one of the fathers of this field."

Throughout his career, Prof Wilkinson was an outspoken opponent of terrorism of all kinds. But he also consistently argued that the democratic response to both domestic and international terrorism should always be guided by the rule of law.

Prof Wilkinson, appointed a CBE in 2009, lived in Crail in Fife. He died on Thursday and is survived by his wife Sue, whom he married in 1960, and their three children, Rachel, John and Charles.