By leveraging machine learning to produce AI-generated content, adversaries can weaponize synthetic media, making fact and fiction nearly indistinguishable. The death—or not—of combatant leaders is prime example of the magnitude of the challenge this emerging reality poses.

Terrorist attacks are more common during security and economic crises, but they decrease during humanitarian disasters. Perpetrators focus on what we call “ripe moments” – circumstances that present unique opportunities for terrorist groups to attack when the state is distracted or weakened. But the reason why a state may be vulnerable matters to terrorists.

Politically motivated attacks, carried out by lone individuals lacking direct affiliation with any terrorist group, have become more common in Europe during the last few decades. Lone-actor attacks are difficult to prevent precisely because they are not a systemic threat in the way that coordinated, group-based terrorism can be. Its danger lies in isolated bursts of violence rather than in sustained campaigns. But there are patterns worth following that could help prevent future incidents.

Extremist groups have attempted to change the meaning of freedom and liberty embedded in Patriots’ Day — a commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord – to serve their far-right rhetoric, recruitment, and radicalization. Understanding how patriotic symbols can be exploited offers important insights into how historical narratives may be manipulated, potentially leading to harmful consequences in American society.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s background as a former branch of ISIS and al-Qa`ida has raised concerns about its trustworthiness regarding the interests of the U.S. and its allies. But the group’s record is reassuring: The largest threats to outside countries in Syria remain the Islamic State, remnant Hezbollah networks, and the criminal captagon trade. When Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was controlling territory in northwest Syria for seven years prior to the fall of the regime, it actually took those challenges on, and has continued to do so since it took over most of Syria on 8 December 2024.

The U.S. declared the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, as well as some Mexican drug cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations. But classifying Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization has sparked debate among observers: Tren de Aragua is primarily a profit-driven group, not an ideological one –placing the organization more firmly in the transnational organized crime category rather than a political terrorist group.

To friends, Matthew Allison was a likeable part of Boise, Idaho’s electronic music scene. But behind his computer screen, authorities say, he helped lead the Terrorgram Collective, an online network that inspired white supremacist violence.

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) stands as a monument to international ambition: the first multilateral treaty to comprehensively ban an entire category of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The treaty’s origins are deeply rooted in the horrors of 20th-century warfare, advancements in biotechnology, and the geopolitical tensions of the Cold War.

US-backed forces declared in 2019 that the Islamic State (IS) group had been destroyed. But as the past few years have shown, that only marked the end of its quasi-state that controlled territory in Iraq and Syria — not the threat it continues to present.