As the people and government of Sri Lanka reel with shock and grief in the wake of the extraordinarily devastating suicide bomb attacks over the Easter weekend they are forced to confront some important lessons. And whilst the horrors of the attacks are uniquely personal to the people of Sri Lanka the challenges that they present go well beyond the island nation.

Tuesday’s belated claim by the Islamic State (IS) movement (presumably delayed by ongoing police operations), that it was responsible for the attacks came as no real surprise. As soon as the magnitude of what had happened on Sunday was revealed it was clear that this was not just the work of local hateful extremists turned terrorists. Nor was the targeting of Christians and foreigners something that made sense within the local context of Sri Lankan society. It was all but inevitable that the attacks were in large part the work of an international terrorist movement.