Terrorist organisations in past decades have had clear aims and objectives. Not so Islamic State, whose apocalyptic vision of a final conflict with the West demands a robust response, says a former diplomat well versed in responding to militant organisations Long ago, in another life, I was the Foreign Office’s head of counterterrorism, a newly created post. Unlike any other FO job, it brought you into contact with bodies you would not as a diplomat normally expect to encounter, from intelligence agencies to special forces. As Terry Waite went missing in Beirut in 1987 in my first few days on the job, I became a frequent visitor to Lambeth Palace, again a far remove from a conventional diplomatic posting to London. Getting Waite out of the clutches of Hezbollah proved a tough nut t