Counter-terrorism should still bring states together against common threats.
After Moscow Attack, Great Powers Should Rethink Geopolitical Competition
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counter-terrorism
Can We Demilitarize U.S. Policy in Africa?
The House passed a bill that sounds good, but doesn’t end Washington’s failed, militarized approach or get to root problems.
U.S. ‘Counterterrorism’ in Africa Has Failed. What’s the Alternative?
Escalating U.S. interventions have led to more extremist violence on the continent, not less.
The House Sit-In Would’ve Been More Powerful if It Rejected ‘No Fly, No Buy’
House Democrats are legitimizing error-prone, Islamophobic terrorist “watch lists” as the basis for gun control. That won’t make anyone safer.
Playing the Spoiler in Colombia
When Barack Obama entered office in 2009, many Latin America specialists reveled in the prospect that U.S. policy would reform its Cold War approach to a region that is a major source of foreign oil, illegal immigration, and illicit narcotics. The United States would at last recognize and address the complex political and economic dynamics of a region still struggling with its colonial legacy, and where one-third of people still endure often extreme poverty.
Ten Years and One Month Later
When I look back on the news cycle over the last two months, I think of 9/11 and floods. On the morning of August 28, I turned on the television and watched as the local newscaster showed the Hudson River lapping against the top of the concrete bulkhead, threatening to rush into the streets of Battery Park in Lower Manhattan. This spot was just a few blocks away from Ground Zero, where, as the scene shifted, we could see the site being prepared for the upcoming memorial event. As the storm waters receded, news outlets fixed their attention on this scene, and we found ourselves awash in a sea of commentary on the anniversary and the impact of 9/11 over the last decade.
Why Not a Fantasy Foreign Policy League?
Military intelligence threat assessments are like a counterterrorism version of fantasy football ratings.
War Fatigue and the Un-Critical Critics of War
From Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya, the first decade of the 21st century has solidified the U.S. reputation as the energizer bunny of war. While these conflicts continue to rage on, there are a growing number of signs that even the United States has a limit to how much war it is willing to wage.
The New Face Of War
The assassination of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden did more than knock off U.S. Public Enemy Number One. It formalized a new kind of warfare, where sovereignty is irrelevant, armies tangential, and decisions are secret. It is, in the words of counterinsurgency expert John Nagl, “an astounding change in the nature of warfare.”
Lighting the Terrorist Fuse
Terrorist plots are suddenly everywhere. In Baltimore last week, a 21-year-old construction worker tried to blow up a military recruitment center. In late November, federal law enforcement officials arrested a Somalia-born teenager for plotting to bomb a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon. In October, a jury found the Newburgh Four guilty of planning to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx.
In all three cases, the major accomplice was not al-Qaeda or the Taliban. It was the FBI.