OPINION — The worldwide terrorism panorama in 2026 — the 25th anniversary 12 months of the 9/11 terrorism assaults — is extra unsure, hybridized, and flamable than at any level since 9/11. Framing a sound U.S. counterterrorism technique — particularly within the second 12 months of a Trump administration — would require greater than remoted strikes in opposition to ISIS in Nigeria, punitive counterterrorism operations in Syria, or a more durable rhetorical posture.
A Trump administration counterterrorism technique would require legitimacy: the home, worldwide, and authorized credibility that leverages a wide-range of counterterrorism instruments, whereas engendering worldwide counterterrorism cooperation. With out legitimacy, even tactically profitable counterterrorism operations danger changing into illusory, politicized, and in the end self-defeating.
The terrorist menace panorama
Extremist violence not conforms to scrub ideological traces. Terrorist goals and drivers are muddled in methods which might be onerous to grasp — however evolving. There’s little ideological purity with these radicalizing in at the moment’s extremist milieu.
On the identical time, state-directed intelligence officers more and more behave like terrorists. Russian intelligence-linked sabotage plots blur the road between terrorism and hybrid warfare. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers present hands-on coaching to Lebanese Hizballah commanders. Addressing these sorts of dangers requires legitimacy, too, particularly amongst allies whose intelligence cooperation, authorized authorities, and public help are indispensable.
Nowhere is that this menace image extra tenuous than within the Center East. Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assaults triggered a profound rebalancing of energy within the area. But, Syria stays unfinished enterprise. Energy vacuums there invite international jihadists, threaten Israel’s border communities, and create future alternatives for Iranian affect to rebound.
A modest however persistent U.S. presence in Syria with a pleasant Ahmed al-Sharaa-led authorities stays a strategic hedge in opposition to an Islamic State resurgence, and is a powerful sign of U.S. dedication that helps maintain accomplice confidence. The U.S. counterterrorism presence and alignment with al-Sharaa just isn’t with out its dangers, although: in December, three Individuals had been killed by a lone ISIS gunman in central Syria. The nation is, and can proceed to be, suffering from sectarianism and terrorism, which implies that restoring management over a deeply fractured Syria stays fraught.
Taken collectively, the present transnational terrorism menace panorama is unstable and troublesome to foretell, a problem compounded by useful resource constraints. In such an setting, legitimacy turns into a drive multiplier. A perception that America is a ‘drive for good’, credible messaging, and confidence that U.S. authorities motion is perceived as simply, can go a good distance.
This isn’t an summary concern. Terrorism at the moment thrives in contested data environments, polarized societies, and fragile states. In brief, transnational jihadist networks now coexist with home violent extremists, and on-line radicalization ecosystems that blur the road between terrorism, insurgency, and hybrid warfare. Terrorist propaganda continues to resonate with people within the West, particularly youthful generations who radicalize on-line. On this setting, legitimacy is not a secondary good thing about sound technique—it’s a core guideline.
The Trump administration’s counterterrorism strategy
We’re in search of extra readability on the trajectory of Trump 2.0 counterterrorism efforts. It’s nonetheless, untimely to think about a method that has but to be formally articulated, as many within the counterterrorism neighborhood eagerly await its launch. Historical past affords a helpful reminder. The primary Trump administration didn’t publish its Nationwide Technique for Counterterrorism till its second 12 months. When it appeared in 2018, critics and supporters alike acknowledged that it mirrored skilled judgment relatively than ideological extra. That doc acknowledged terrorism’s evolution and referred to as for strengthening counterterrorism partnerships throughout the U.S. authorities, however overseas as nicely, with a spread of longstanding allies.
What gave that technique sturdiness was its legitimacy. Authorities had been grounded in legislation, menace assessments had been evidence-based, insurance policies had been stress-tested for defective assumptions, and international partnerships had been handled as strategic property relatively than transactional relationships.
When the Biden administration publicly launched a set of redacted guidelines secretly issued by President Trump in 2017 for counterterrorism operations — reminiscent of “direct motion” strikes and particular operations raids outdoors standard conflict zones — these pointers explicitly acknowledged the facility of legitimacy. Counterterrorism succeeds when allies belief the U.S., and the American public believes drive is used proportionately and lawfully.
That legacy of belief issues now greater than ever, given indicators {that a} second Trump administration may overcorrect on its counterterrorism priorities by redirecting and focusing sources on far-left extremist teams such because the Turtle Island Liberation Entrance (TILF) or Antifa, whereas downplaying far-right extremism—or being distracted from the extra harmful terrorism threats from ISIS and different violent jihadists. Because the world not too long ago witnessed throughout the holidays, from Bondi Seaside to Syria, ISIS stays a menace. Far-Left terrorism within the U.S. is on the rise, however far-right terrorism accounts for larger lethality than did the left. And nonetheless, after 25 years, it’s ISIS and al-Qa’ida that stay probably the most persistent and enduring transnational terrorism menace in opposition to U.S pursuits.
The Trump Nationwide Safety Technique
It’s regarding that the not too long ago printed Nationwide Safety Technique (NSS) solely tepidly addresses transnational terrorism, however notably hyperlinks terrorism with cross-border threats and hemispheric cooperation in opposition to issues like “narco-terrorists,” blurring the standard separation between transnational organized crime and terrorism.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration’s emphasis on drug cartels is justifiable, if it does not detract from broader counterterrorism goals, such because the ISIS or hybridizing terrorist threats that proceed to emerge. Commentators declare, nonetheless, that the Trump administration is already shedding sight of the ISIS and al-Qa’ida threats, although settling that debate right here is quixotic at greatest — solely time will inform.
Moreover jihadi threats, the U.S. doesn’t want the unintended penalties and dangers of triggering a cycle of cartel retaliation – or upsetting larger far-left violence – down-the-line within the U.S. homeland.
Contrastingly, the 2017 Nationwide Safety Technique noticed radical Islamist terrorism as one of many precedence transnational threats that would undermine U.S. safety and stability. The technique highlighted teams reminiscent of ISIS and al-Qa’ida as persevering with risks, stressing that terrorists had taken management of components of the Center East and remained a menace globally.
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Addressing transnational terrorism throughout the first Trump administration required self-discipline and steadiness amid predictable frictions on the Nationwide Safety Council (NSC) amongst policymakers who needed a extra speedy shift towards different priorities, reminiscent of nice energy competitors. Nonetheless, terrorist labeling and designations, strategic messaging, and useful resource allocation for counterterrorism had been grounded in proof relatively than politics.
So, overhyping some threats whereas minimizing others undermines legitimacy, invitations backlash, and weakens the very ethical authority wanted to operationalize a cogent, considerate nationwide safety technique. It additionally erodes belief between the federal government and the general public and leads residents to second-guess whether or not they’re being instructed the reality or being led astray. The 2017 NSS carried weight exactly as a result of it was grounded in intelligence, not politics. Furthermore, the NSS helped body the counterterrorism technique that adopted and proved extremely efficient in preserving Individuals protected.
Drawing classes from the 2018 Nationwide Technique for Counterterrorism
The 2018 Nationwide Technique for Counterterrorism (NSCT) stays a helpful basis for the second Trump administration—not as a result of the world is unchanged, however as a result of it embraced stability. The technique emphasised international partnerships, non-military instruments, and focused direct motion when needed. It acknowledged a central legitimacy precept: the USA can’t and mustn’t combat each terrorist in all places with American troops when succesful counterterrorism companions can accomplish that in their very own backyards, with native consent, and a extra granular understanding of the grievances that encourage these terrorist teams and their supporters.
And nonetheless, U.S. counterterrorism stress by way of direct motion stays a needed instrument to disrupt terrorism planning. Plainly the second Trump Administration is following the playbook of the primary Trump administration by way of aggressive counterterrorism kinetic strikes in locations like Somalia, Yemen, and Iraq.
President Trump rescinded Biden-era limits on counterterrorism drone strikes, permitting the sort of versatile operational framework used for counterterrorism all through the President’s first time period. To this point, within the aggressive counter-narcotic marketing campaign in worldwide waters off Venezuela, the standoff U.S. strikes resemble counterterrorism operations in Yemen and Somalia throughout the first Trump administration. Operationally, direct motion stays an indispensable counterterrorism instrument for disrupting terror teams abroad, and extra U.S. direct motion will probably be needed in West Africa and the Sahel to maintain jihadist teams working there off stability, forcing them to commit extra time and sources to operational safety.
However stress with out legitimacy is counterproductive. What works in opposition to jihadist networks doesn’t essentially translate cleanly to drug cartels or transnational felony gangs. So, policymakers should be circumspect that increasing the scope of counterterrorism authorities and terrorist designations to canvas drug cartels, dangers the unintended penalties of triggering destabilizing cycles of violence sooner or later, and straining extra conventional counterterrorism sources.
Coming full circle, in gentle of the U.S. seize of Nicolás Maduro for narcoterrorism-related offenses, the concept of legitimacy will probably be fiercely debated within the days and weeks forward. If the Trump Nationwide Safety Technique is the roadmap for specializing in narcoterrorism within the Western Hemisphere, then the necessity for publishing a clarifying and rational U.S. counterterrorism technique for the remainder of the world takes on even larger sense of urgency.
Pushing a boulder uphill
Drawing on previous counterterrorism classes to discover a complete technique—from the Bush administration’s wartime footing, by way of 8 years of Obama counterterrorism work, to President Trump’s “conflict on terror” — is a Sisyphean activity. However, within the wake of over twenty years of relentless abroad counterterrorism work, just a few concepts have come into sharper focus:
After greater than twenty years of counterterrorism, loosening the Gordian knot of contemporary terrorism requires stability, far larger readability, and constant, predictable nationwide management.
Above all, counterterrorism technique requires legitimacy. With out it, counterterrorism turns into reactive and politicized. With it, a Trump 2.0 counterterrorism technique can nonetheless be agency, versatile, and credible in a much more harmful world.
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