Daniel Chirot, a professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the UW’s Henry M. Jackson School, has just returned from a month in Paris. He has a cousin and other relatives in Paris, all of whom are safe, he said.
Chirot said he feared the attacks would be a boost for the right-wing party in France, the National Front, and could lead to closed borders between countries and a change in the political dynamic across Europe.
“The unfortunate thing — there are many unfortunate things, on top of the immigration crisis and the financial problems — is that the European Union is in serious danger of just breaking down,” he said.
Chirot said France is vulnerable to terrorist attacks because it is one of the few European countries that have participated in wars in the Middle East. About 7 percent of the French population is Muslim, and officials in France have said they believe about 1,500 French Muslims have joined the Islamic State group in recent years, more than from any other European country except for Russia, he said.
He described Paris as an open city, with fewer security cameras than in London.