![A Sri Lankan police officer patrols outside a mosque, Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 24, 2019 (AP photo by Eranga Jayawardena).](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/l_sri-lanka-soldier-04252019-1.jpg?w=519&h=259&crop=1)
Large-scale terrorist attacks destroy lives, but they also have the power to upend political realities. That, after all, is their goal. The Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka are no exception. Whatever the larger objectives of the perpetrators of the suicide bombings at three churches and three hotels, their actions have sent political shockwaves across Sri Lanka, just as it prepares for presidential elections later this year. The political reverberations of the attacks were almost immediate. As Sri Lankans grappled with the human toll—more than 350 dead and hundreds more injured—revelations that authorities had received detailed warnings about an impending […]