Why Brussels?

So said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel this morning, speaking in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s attacks on Brussels. Expressing condolences and calling for unity, he voiced what many people had been thinking—that some form of assault on Belgium was perhaps inevitable. Indeed, the country has been gritting its teeth in readiness for just such a possibility since the Paris attacks of last November.

Following the awful night of November 13, international attention shifted partly from the carnage in France to the Belgian capital, where it emerged that several of the attackers had links to the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek. When the Paris attacker and Molenbeek resident Salah Abdeslam managed to evade police and go into hiding, intense scrutiny fell on the area, long cited as a potential breeding ground for Islamic extremism. With Abdeslam still on the loose, Brussels went into prolonged lockdown lasting four days. During this time, central streets fell quiet and much of the city’s life turned inwards to the comfort of home.