Former British Prime Minister (1997-2007) Tony Blair considers Islamism to be the primary threat to Western countries and the world community as a whole.

Speaking on Monday at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), he called on the world to develop a unified approach to the fight against fundamentalist ideology, reports TASS.

Islamism - both in the form of ideology and in the form of violence - is a first-order threat to our security. In the absence of containment, this threat will overtake us, even if its focus is far away, as the attacks of September 11, 2001 demonstrated, Blair said, adding that ultimately Islamism, like revolutionary communism, will be defeated with the combination of tough and soft power.

After the fall of the regime in Afghanistan, the world's leading countries especially need to unite in order to develop a coherent strategy against Islamism. Even if the initial discussions are mainly conducted by Western countries, Russia and China are also interested in fighting this ideology, and we can find our most loyal allies in Muslim countries, including the countries of the Middle East, whose residents want to free their religion from the influence of extremism, he noted.

According to Blair, an alternative view of the problem of Islamism assumes that it is a second-order threat and it is necessary to fight its most dangerous manifestations, using special forces, targeted drone strikes and conducting anti-terrorist operations. He added that such a strategy has a number of limitations, and pointed out that the events in Afghanistan do not indicate that the local population preferred the Taliban power to liberal democracy.

The ex-prime minister considers the desire of the authorities in Western countries to avoid casualties among the military stationed abroad as a serious obstacle to the implementation of hybrid approaches to the problem.

There is also an additional challenge for Europe and NATO. It became clear that America has decided to limit military operations as much as possible for the foreseeable future, Blair said. He added that NATO and European countries need the ability to act without the support of the United States, since they will be the first to face the challenges posed by Islamism, including migration.

He also pointed out that Western leaders need to remember how deep strategic approaches to such problems are formulated.