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Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts

Monday, July 1, 2024

Fluence Energy has established itself as a leader in energy storage through several strategic advantages and significant achievements in scale!

 


 Here are the key factors contributing to the leadership position of $FLNC:

  1. Scale and Reach: Fluence has deployed and contracted over 20 GWh of battery-based energy storage systems globally, operating in 47 markets. This extensive presence and experience enable Fluence to leverage global best practices and economies of scale, making it a formidable player in the energy storage industry.

  2. Technological Innovation: The company continuously develops advanced energy storage products, such as the Gridstack Pro and Ultrastack, tailored for utility-scale projects and grid applications. These innovations are designed to meet the increasing demands of modern power grids, particularly in managing renewable energy integration and grid stability.

  3. Strategic Partnerships: Fluence has forged strong partnerships with key industry players. For instance, their collaboration with TransnetBW in Germany on the 250 MW Grid Booster project showcases their ability to deliver large-scale, innovative solutions that enhance grid efficiency and support renewable energy integration.

  4. Comprehensive Service Offerings: Fluence provides an ecosystem of solutions, including modular and scalable energy storage products, comprehensive service offerings, and AI-enabled software for managing and optimizing renewable energy and storage. This holistic approach ensures customers can rely on Fluence for end-to-end energy storage solutions.

  5. Safety and Reliability: Fluence emphasizes safety and reliability, which are critical for gaining and maintaining customer trust. Their systems have accumulated nearly 3 million operating hours, underscoring their durability and performance.

Looking forward, Fluence plans to maintain its leadership by continuing to innovate, expanding its market reach, and enhancing its technological capabilities. The company is also focused on addressing emerging challenges such as grid congestion and renewable energy integration by deploying sophisticated energy storage solutions that provide flexibility and resilience to power networks.

By leveraging these strengths and maintaining its commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction, Fluence is well-positioned to sustain its leadership in the rapidly evolving energy storage market.



Over the past three years, Fluence Energy has demonstrated substantial growth, solidifying its position as a leader in the energy storage sector. Here are some key highlights of their growth trajectory:

  1. Revenue Growth: Fluence has experienced significant increases in revenue. For instance, in fiscal year 2023, the company reported record quarterly order intakes, which resulted in the highest-ever backlog and led to an increase in their revenue guidance for the year​ (Simply Wall St)​​ (Stock Analysis)​.

  2. Global Expansion: Fluence has expanded its market presence to 47 countries, deploying and contracting over 20 GWh of battery-based energy storage systems globally. This expansion includes major projects in Germany, Finland, and Australia, showcasing their capability to handle large-scale and complex energy storage systems​ (Fluence)​​ (Stock Analysis)​.

  3. Technological and Product Innovation: The company has continuously introduced advanced energy storage products, such as the Gridstack Pro and Ultrastack, which cater to utility-scale projects and address the growing needs for grid stability and renewable energy integration. These innovations help Fluence stay ahead in a competitive market by offering cutting-edge solutions​ (Fluence)​​ (Simply Wall St)​.

  4. Strategic Partnerships and Projects: Fluence has partnered with leading energy companies worldwide to deliver significant projects. Notable examples include the 500 MW/1000 MWh energy storage system for AGL Energy in Australia and the Grid Booster project in Germany, which are among the largest and most complex energy storage systems globally​ (Fluence)​​ (Simply Wall St)​.

  5. Industry Recognition: In 2024, Fluence was named one of Forbes' Most Successful Mid-Cap Companies, reflecting its robust performance and market leadership. This recognition is based on positive sales growth, financial health, and strategic market positioning​ (Fluence)​.

Overall, Fluence Energy's growth over the past three years has been marked by increased revenue, global market expansion, technological innovation, strategic partnerships, and industry recognition. These factors collectively contribute to its leading position in the energy storage market and set a strong foundation for continued growth in the future.

Discl: We own shares in $FLNC


Enovix ($ENVX on Nasdaq) has developed a unique new Li battery that will enhance safety, longevity and higher energy levels


Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Energy Storage and EV charging are burgeoning markets today, and this company is a first mover and market leader! Here's why/

 ChargePoint has established itself as a leader in the energy storage and EV charging markets for several reasons:

  1. Network Size

    ChargePoint operates 114,000 charging points across the U.S. and Europe, making it the largest EV charging system provider globally.
  2. Growing faster

    than any competitor!

  3. Integrated Solutions:

    ChargePoint collaborates with Stem, an AI-driven clean energy solutions provider, to develop an integrated EV charging and battery storage solution

    This approach allows fast charging deployment even before utility upgrades are complete, avoiding demand charges. 
  4. Battery storage also enhances grid resilience during outages.
  5. Partnerships: ChargePoint has formed strategic partnerships with companies like VolvoStarbucks, and Mercedes to expand fast charging infrastructure and support long-distance electric travel2.

  6. European Market Leadership: In a report by Frost Sullivan, ChargePoint was recognized as the European electric vehicle charging market leader based on product quality, implementation excellence, and growth strategy3.

Overall, 

ChargePoint’s commitment to mass EV adoption, extensive network, and innovative solutions contribute to its leadership position in the industry


ASIA

ChargePoint, a leading provider of networked charging solutions for electric vehicles (EVs), has been expanding its presence in AsiaWhile the company has primarily focused on the Americas and Europe, it has also reported triple-digit growth in Asian markets


Additionally, ChargePoint’s software enables access to over 900,000 global charging locations, making it a significant player in the EV charging space worldwide


Growth

ChargePoint is currently in a growth phaseChargePoint has been experiencing significant growth in its global footprint. While specific growth rates may vary, the company’s expansion efforts have been substantial.

Also, the pullback in the EV charging portion of Tesla's business, may have a significant positive impact on it's competitors and ChargePoint is the main competitor.


New Partnerships:

ChargePoint (NYSE: $CHPT), The leading provider of networked charging solutions for electric vehicles ( $EVs), and Airbnb Inc. (NASDAQ: $ABNB) have partnered to meet a growing demand in EV charging from Airbnb guests.

Stock Price

CHPT's stock price is at or near it's all time low and therefore positive news could send the price much much higher over the next 24 months!




Monday, November 18, 2013

Flinders Resources moving ahead with Graphite production schedule

Flinders Resources LimitedFlinders Resources Limited

TSX VENTURE : FDR



November 14, 2013 08:45 ET

Flinders Board Approves Production Plan for the Woxna Graphite Project



VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Nov. 14, 2013) - Flinders Resources Limited ("Flinders" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:FDR) is pleased to provide an update on its production plan for the Woxna graphite project in Sweden (the "Woxna Project"). If successful the updated plan would permit Flinders to maintain its strategic advantage in becoming the first public company to produce graphite on a commercial scale.

Blair Way, President & CEO states, "After joining the Board and Management, my focus has been to transition Flinders from engineering work to re-establishing production at a capital cost within the Company's means. This would allow us to develop cash flow in the short term and form strong and lasting relationships with customers. We have reviewed all aspects of the recently published Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Woxna Project ("PEA") to define a staged implementation of the PEA. There is no material change to the PEA as it defines the path to production. The implementation plan allows for staged production rates and capital cost spending such that the initial startup requires less than half the total capital cost estimated in the PEA. The balance of the PEA capital cost will be invested in stages as sales and subsequent production levels demand. With more than CDN$11M in cash and zero debt, in combination with expected revenue from graphite sales from mid-2014, we believe the Company is well positioned to incrementally increase to production levels outlined in the PEA. Our aim is to be in production by the end of Q2 2014. With stabilized graphite prices, this is an exciting time for the Company and I look forward to providing regular updates on the progress at site."
The Company advises that it has not based its production decision on a feasibility study of mineral reserves, demonstrating economic and technical viability, and, as a result, there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level of recovery of minerals or the cost of such recovery, including increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit. Historically, such projects have a much higher risk of economic and technical failure. There is no guarantee that production will begin as anticipated or at all or that anticipated production costs will be achieved. Failure to commence production would have a material adverse impact on the Company's ability to generate revenue and cash flow to fund operations. Failure to achieve the anticipated production costs would have a material adverse impact on the Company's cash flow and future profitability.
The Company further cautions that the PEA is preliminary in nature. No mining study has been completed. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.
The fully-permitted and past-producing Woxna Project remains unique in terms of the low startup capital, a high quality coarse graphite flake product and proximity to Europe, one of the world's dominant graphite markets. After the finalization of the PEA in October 2013, and deterioration in the capital markets, the challenge has been to initiate production at a capital cost within the Company's means.
The Flinders Board recently approved the staged production plan for commencing production of graphite from Woxna. This staged plan spreads the PEA capital cost over the next 4 years based as sales contracts are established but permits for lower production levels and costs until the sales warrant capacity expansion.
The open pit mine has been dewatered and is ready to put in service. The front end (grinding) and backend of the plant (drying/sorting/packing) are in serviceable condition, however the middle floatation section requires some additional equipment to enable optimized production according to the improved flow sheet defined in the PEA. Procurement of equipment (new and used) and design work has commenced. The Company currently exceeds all environmental statutory requirements and has established water balance control measures at site that will be upgraded to match the staged production plan to ensure all discharges are within environmental requirements.
The Company believes that the staged production plan will facilitate marketing of its products and allow the Woxna project to re-establish its former position as a key supplier of graphite to Europe. Flinders aims to position itself as the supplier of choice in terms of price, supply security and quality to the European graphite market. The production model being implemented will ensure the Company has developed an adequate customer base before ramping up to larger scale production and that the graphite products consistently meet end user specifications. Through the sale of reprocessed graphite over the last 12 months the Company has made substantial marketing in-roads and is confident the Woxna brand will continue to be well received throughout Europe.
Michael Hudson, FAusIMM, MSEG, MAIG, a director of the Company and a qualified person as defined under NI 43-101, has reviewed the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release.

On behalf of the Board,
Blair Way, President and CEO

Forward-Looking Information
Certain information in this presentation may constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "Forward-Looking Statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are Forward-Looking Statements. Forward-Looking Statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "can", "should", "could", or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. Forward-Looking Statements are based upon the opinions and expectations of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-Looking Statements are subject to a number of factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the Forward-Looking Statements including, among other things, the Company has yet to generate a profit from its activities; there can be no guarantee that the estimates of quantities or qualities of minerals disclosed in the Company's public record will be economically recoverable; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; competition with other companies within the mining industry; the success of the Company is largely dependent upon the performance of its directors and officers and the Company's ability to attract and train key personnel; changes in world metal markets and equity markets beyond the Company's control; mineral reserves are, in the large part, estimates and no assurance can be given that the anticipated tonnages and grades will be achieved or that the indicated level of recovery will be realized; production rates and capital and other costs may vary significantly from estimates; the Company's decision to restart production at the Woxna graphite project is based on historical production and the Company's preliminary economic assessment of the project and the Company has no plans to first complete a pre-feasibility or feasibility study on the project, as a result there is an increased risk of technical and economic failure for the Woxna graphite project; unexpected geological conditions; delays in obtaining or failure to obtain necessary permits and approvals from government authorities; all phases of a mining business present environmental and safety risks and hazards and are subject to environmental and safety regulation, and rehabilitation and restitution costs; the Company does not maintain insurance against environmental risks; and management of the Company have experience in mineral exploration but may lack all or some of the necessary technical training and experience to successfully develop and operate a mine.
Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the Forward-Looking Statements, and the assumptions on which such Forward-Looking Statements are made, are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which the Forward-Looking Statements are based will occur. Forward-Looking Statements herein are made as at the date hereof, and unless otherwise required by law, the Company does not intend, or assume any obligation, to update these Forward-Looking Statements.
Cautionary Note to United States Readers Concerning Resource and Reserve Estimates:
This release has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Canada which differ in certain material respects from the disclosure requirements of United States securities laws.
The terms "mineral resource", "measured mineral resource", "indicated mineral resource" and "inferred mineral resource" are Canadian mining terms as defined in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum's (the "CIM") - CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves, adopted by the CIM Council, as may be amended from time to time by the CIM. These terms are not defined terms under the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") Industry Guide 7 ("SEC Industry Guide 7") under the Securities Act of 1933 and normally are not permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the SEC.
Readers are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into "reserves" (as defined in SEC Industry Guide 7). "Inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of an economic analysis, except a preliminary economic assessment provided certain additional disclosure requirements are met. Readers are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists or is economically or legally mineable. Disclosure of "contained ounces" in a resource is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations; however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute "reserves" by SEC Industry Guide 7 standards as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures.
Accordingly, information contained in this presentation and any documents incorporated by reference herein containing descriptions of our mineral deposits may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements under the United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

Contact Information

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Flinders Graphite re-opening European Woxna graphite Mine in Sweden

Woxna Graphite Tests Yield Enhanced Large Flake Distribution 
 
Flinders Resources Limited ("Flinders") (TSX.V - FDR) Mr. Martin McFarlane, President & CEO is pleased to provide an update on the metallurgical test programs being conducted on graphite bearing rock from the Woxna Graphite Mine, Sweden.

A bulk sample, together with representative core samples of graphite mineralization from across the Woxna Kringel mineral resource were sent to flotation specialist Aminpro Metallurgical Laboratories ("Aminpro") in Chile. Aminpro were commissioned to complete a series of graphite processing tests that would lead to a new process flow sheet optimising graphite flake size, purity and recovery results.

A key goal of the test work program was to maximise the proportion of larger flake sizes in the flotation concentrate. Using a single stage coarser grind and rougher float has yielded an encouragingly high proportion of large flake sizes.

The following table outlines the flake size distributionsfor the current test results and historical production, and shows potential for improved flake size distribution.
 ______________________________________________________
|Graphite Flake Size |Test Results |Historic Production|
|        (µm)        |(% by weight)|   (% by weight)   |
|____________________|_____________|___________________|
|             +250 µm|        23   |             -     |
|____________________|_____________|___________________|
|         +180-250 µm|        27   |            32     |
|____________________|_____________|___________________|
|         +100-180 µm|        35   |            32     |
|____________________|_____________|___________________|
|             -100 µm|        15   |            36     |
|____________________|_____________|___________________|



Further cleaning test work is currently underway to maximise graphite purity while maintaining a high flake size distribution. The metallurgical test program concludes with locked cycle tests of the proposed new process flow sheet. This work is expected to be completed in early June.

Mining Plan
Golders of Sweden are nearing completion on the design of the Woxna mine plan and will deliver their final report at the end of May.
Having previously delivered a 4 phase 20+ year mine plan, Golders have undertaken multiple iterations to optimise the first 10 years of the plan resulting in a better than 30% improvement of the 10 year stripping ratio to 6:1 with 3:1 during the first 3 years.
The revised mine plan has then been subject to optimisation using the industry recognised Whittle optimisation software. This is anticipated to further improve ore to waste ratios by up to 15%.

Tailings and Water Management
Tailings and water management plans were presented to the regulators earlier this year. The plans will deliver substantially improved environmental performance at the Woxna mine. While no formal approval is required from the regulator, feedback to date has been positive.

Preliminary Economic Assessment
Once the final results are available from the metallurgical test work, all of the components will be available to complete a preliminary economic assessment of resuming production at the Woxna graphite mine.

New and reused equipment will be specified for the final modified process flow sheet. Operating and capital costs will then be calculated as will revenue based on the metallurgical test results.It is anticipated that the preliminary economic assessment of the Woxna graphite project will be completed in July.

The qualified person for the Woxna project, Mr. Chris Stinton of GBM Minerals Engineering Consultants of the United Kingdom, has reviewed and verified the contents of this release.

On behalf of the Board
"Martin McFarlane" Martin McFarlane, President and CEO
Certain information set out in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "Forward-Looking Statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are Forward-Looking Statements. Forward-Looking Statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may," "will," "can," "should," "could," or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. Forward-Looking Statements are based upon the opinions and expectations of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-Looking Statements are subject to a number of factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the Forward-Looking Statements including, among other things, the Company has yet to generate a profit from its activities; there can be no guarantee that the estimates of quantities or qualities of minerals disclosed in the Company's public record will be economically recoverable; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; competition with other companies within the mining industry; the success of the Company is largely dependent upon the performance of its directors and officers and the Company's ability to attract and train key personnel; changes in world metal markets and equity markets beyond the Company's control; mineral reserves are, in the large part, estimates and no assurance can be given that the anticipated tonnages and grades will be achieved or that the indicated level of recovery will be realized; production rates and capital and other costs may vary significantly from estimates; unexpected geological conditions; delays in obtaining or failure to obtain necessary permits and approvals from government authorities; all phases of a mining business present environmental and safety risks and hazards and are subject to environmental and safety regulation, and rehabilitation and restitution costs; the Company does not maintain insurance against environmental risks; and management of the Company have experience in mineral exploration but may lack all or some of the necessary technical training and experience to successfully develop and operate a mine. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the Forward-Looking Statements, and the assumptions on which such Forward-Looking Statements are made, are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which the Forward-Looking Statements are based will occur. Forward-Looking Statements herein are made as at the date hereof, and unless otherwise required by law, the Company does not intend, or assume any obligation, to update these Forward-Looking Statements.
NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS SUCH TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE
SOURCE: Flinders Resources Limited
To view this news release in HTML formatting, please use the following URL: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2013/28/c2684.html
SOURCE: Flinders Resources Limited
Jim Powell +1 647-478-5806 info@flindersresources.com

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Hertz to rent electric vehicles in European market! Partners with Renault!

SOURCE: The Hertz Corporation
Mar, 2011 

Hertz and Renault Partner to Bring Electric Vehicles to European Rental Markets

Hertz One of First Operators to Offer Renault Twizy for Rental Across Europe, in Addition to Renting ZOE, Fluence and Kangoo Z.E. Models

PARK RIDGE, NJ--(Marketwire - March 2, 2011) - The Hertz Corporation (NYSEHTZ) has signed a Letter of Intent to add Renault's new and innovative range of electric vehicles (EV) to the fleets of Hertz and car sharing club Connect by Hertz across Europe.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Terrorism, Vigilance and the Limits of the War on Terror

Wikinews tag terrorismImage via Wikipedia
By George Friedman
The U.S. government issued a warning Oct. 3 advising Americans traveling to Europe to be “vigilant.” U.S. intelligence apparently has acquired information indicating that al Qaeda is planning to carry out attacks in European cities similar to those carried out in Mumbai, India, in November 2008. In Mumbai, attackers armed with firearms, grenades and small, timed explosive devices targeted hotels frequented by Western tourists and other buildings in an attack that took three days to put down.

European security forces are far better trained and prepared  than their Indian counterparts, and such an attack would be unlikely to last for hours, much less days, in a European country. Still, armed assaults conducted by suicide operatives could be expected to cause many casualties and certainly create a dramatic disruption to economic and social life.
The first question to ask about the Oct. 3 warning, which lacked specific and actionable intelligence, is how someone can be vigilant against such an attack. There are some specific steps that people can and should take to practice good situational awareness as well as some common-sense travel-security precautions. But if you find yourself sleeping in a hotel room as gunmen attack the building, rush to your floor and start entering rooms, a government warning simply to be vigilant would have very little meaning.

The world is awash in intelligence about terrorism. Most of it is meaningless speculation, a conversation intercepted between two Arabs about how they’d love to blow up London Bridge. The problem, of course, is how to distinguish between idle chatter and actual attack planning. There is no science involved in this, but there are obvious guidelines. Are the people known to be associated with radical Islamists? Do they have the intent and capability to conduct such an attack? Were any specific details mentioned in the conversation that can be vetted? Is there other intelligence to support the plot discussed in the conversation?

The problem is that what appears quite obvious in the telling is much more ambiguous in reality. At any given point, the government could reasonably raise the alert level if it wished. That it doesn’t raise it more frequently is tied to three things. First, the intelligence is frequently too ambiguous to act on. Second, raising the alert level warns people without really giving them any sense of what to do about it. Third, it can compromise the sources of its intelligence.

The current warning is a perfect example of the problem. We do not know what intelligence the U.S. government received that prompted the warning, and I suspect that the public descriptions of the intelligence do not reveal everything that the government knows. We do know that a German citizen was arrested in Afghanistan in July and has allegedly provided information regarding this threat, but there are likely other sources contributing to the warning, since the U.S. government considered the intelligence sufficient to cause concern. The Obama administration leaked on Saturday that it might issue the warning, and indeed it did.

The government did not recommend that Americans not travel to Europe. That would have affected the economy and infuriated Europeans. Leaving tourism aside, since tourism season is largely over, a lot of business is transacted by Americans in Europe. The government simply suggested vigilance. Short of barring travel, there was nothing effective the government could do. So it shifted the burden to travelers. If no attack occurs, nothing is lost. If an attack occurs, the government can point to the warning and the advice. Those hurt or killed would not have been vigilant.

I do not mean to belittle the U.S. government on this. Having picked up the intelligence it can warn the public or not. The public has a right to know, and the government is bound by law and executive order to provide threat information. But the reason that its advice is so vague is that there is no better advice to give. The government is not so much washing its hands of the situation as acknowledging that there is not much that anyone can do aside from the security measures travelers should already be practicing.

The alert serves another purpose beyond alerting the public. It communicates to the attackers that their attack has been detected if not penetrated, and that the risks of the attack have pyramided. Since these are most likely suicide attackers not expecting to live through the attack, the danger is not in death. It is that the Americans or the Europeans might have sufficient intelligence available to thwart the attack. From the terrorist point of view, losing attackers to death or capture while failing to inflict damage is the worst of all possible scenarios. Trained operatives are scarce, and like any strategic weapon they must be husbanded and, when used, cause maximum damage. When the attackers do not know what Western intelligence knows, their risk of failure is increased along with the incentive to cancel the attack. A government warning, therefore, can prevent an attack.

In addition, a public warning can set off a hunt for the leak within al Qaeda. Communications might be shut down while the weakness is examined. Members of the organization might be brought under suspicion. The warning can generate intense uncertainty within al Qaeda as to how much Western intelligence knows. The warning, if it correlates with an active plot, indicates a breach of security, and a breach of security can lead to a witch-hunt that can paralyze an organization.
Therefore, the warning might well have served a purpose, but the purpose was not necessarily to empower citizens to protect themselves from terrorists. Indeed, there might have been two purposes. One might have been to disrupt the attack and the attackers. The other might have been to cover the government if an attack came.

In either case, it has to be recognized that this sort of warning breeds cynicism among the public. If the warning is intended to empower citizens, it engenders a sense of helplessness, and if no attack occurs, it can also lead to alert fatigue. What the government is saying to its citizenry is that, in the end, it cannot guarantee that there won’t be an attack and therefore its citizens are on their own. The problem with that statement is not that the government isn’t doing its job but that the job cannot be done. The government can reduce the threat of terrorism. It cannot eliminate it.

This brings us to the strategic point. The defeat of jihadist terror cells cannot be accomplished defensively. Homeland security can mitigate the threat, but it can never eliminate it. The only way to eliminate it is to destroy all jihadist cells and prevent the formation of new cells by other movements or by individuals forming new movements, and this requires not just destroying existing organizations but also the radical ideology that underlies them. To achieve this, the United States and its allies would have to completely penetrate a population of about 1.3 billion people and detect every meeting of four or five people planning to create a terrorist cell. And this impossible task would not even address the problem of lone-wolf terrorists. It is simply impossible to completely dominate and police the entire world, and any effort to do so would undoubtedly induce even more people to turn to terrorism in opposition to the global police state.

Will Rogers was asked what he might do to deal with the German U-boat threat in World War I. He said he would boil away the Atlantic, revealing the location of the U-boats that could then be destroyed. Asked how he would do this, he answered that that was a technical question and he was a policymaker.

The idea of suppressing jihadist terrorism through direct military action in the Islamic world would be an idea Will Rogers would have appreciated. It is a superb plan from a policymaking perspective. It suffers only from the problem of technical implementation. Even native Muslim governments motivated to suppress Islamic terrorism, like those in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria or Yemen, can’t achieve this goal absolutely. The idea that American troops, outnumbered and not speaking the language or understanding the culture, can do this is simply not grounded in reality.

The United States and Europe are going to be attacked by jihadist terrorists from time to time, and innocent people are going to be killed, perhaps in the thousands again. The United States and its allies can minimize the threat through covert actions and strong defenses, but they cannot eliminate it. The hapless warning to be vigilant that was issued this past weekend is the implicit admission of this fact.

This is not a failure of will or governance. The United States can’t conceivably mount the force needed to occupy the Islamic world, let alone pacify it to the point where it can’t be a base for terrorists. Given that the United States can’t do this in Afghanistan, the idea that it might spread this war throughout the Islamic world is unsupportable.

The United States and Europe are therefore dealing with a threat that cannot be stopped by their actions. The only conceivably effective actions would be those taken by Muslim governments, and even those are unlikely to be effective. There is a deeply embedded element within a small segment of the Islamic world that is prepared to conduct terror attacks, and this element will occasionally be successful.

All people hate to feel helpless, and this trait is particularly strong among Americans. There is a belief that America can do anything and that something can and should be done to eliminate terrorism and not just mitigate it. Some Americans believe sufficiently ruthless military action can do it. Others believe that reaching out in friendship might do it. In the end, the terrorist element will not be moved by either approach, and no amount of vigilance (or new bureaucracies) will stop them.
It would follow then that the West will have to live with the terrorist threat for the foreseeable future. This does not mean that military, intelligence, diplomatic, law-enforcement or financial action should be stopped. Causing most terrorist attempts to end in failure is an obviously desirable end. It not only blocks the particular action but also discourages others. But the West will have to accept that there are no measures that will eliminate the threat entirely. The danger will persist.
Effort must be made to suppress it, but the level of effort has to be proportional not to the moral insult of the terrorist act but to considerations of other interests beyond counterterrorism. The United States has an interest in suppressing terrorism. Beyond a certain level of effort, it will reach a point of diminishing returns. Worse, by becoming narrowly focused on counterterrorism and over-committing resources to it, the United States will leave other situations unattended as it focuses excessively on a situation it cannot improve.

The request that Americans be vigilant in Europe represents the limits of power on the question of terrorism. There is nothing else that can be done and what can be done is being done. It also drives home the fact that the United States and the West in general cannot focus all of its power on solving a problem that is beyond its power to solve. The long war against terrorism will not be the only war fought in the coming years. The threat of jihadism must be put in perspective and the effort aligned with what is effective. The world is a dangerous place, as they say, and jihadism is only one of the dangers.

"Terrorism, Vigilance and the Limits of the War on Terror is republished with permission of STRATFOR."

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