Does generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) represent a genuine transformation in terrorist capability, or are its risks being overstated within contemporary security discourse? Gen AI tools, particularly large language models, can improve the efficiency, accessibility, and scale of certain terrorist activities, but there remains limited evidence that they fundamentally alter the nature of terrorism or significantly enhance operational capability.

Security lessons from the 2024 Paris Olympics can inform preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup taking place across the United States, Canada, and Mexico this summer. Paris demonstrated the value of intelligence-led counterterrorism, integrated multi-agency coordination, critical infrastructure protection, cybersecurity readiness, counter-drone capabilities, visible deterrence, and effective public communication.

If we posit that AI is a whole-of-society transformative technology, then we can develop a theoretical account of how AI generates the structural conditions historically associated with the onset of political violence: AI is reordering labor markets, institutional authority, and the relational worlds in which people live, generating preconditions for political violence independently of whether violent actors adopt the technology themselves.

Sebastian Gorka accused a ProPublica reporter of writing a “putrid piece of hackery” about him. Here’s how basic beat reporting led to a broader story about the state of the U.S. counterterrorism mission at a critical moment.

Current and former national security officials had warned that Trump’s redirection of counterterrorism resources toward his mass deportation campaign would diminish the country’s ability to respond should major global events inflame threats at home and abroad. Now, they say, the war in Iran has locked the U.S. into a showdown with a sophisticated state sponsor of terrorism at a time when U.S. security agencies have hemorrhaged expertise and leadership is in flux. For those who know the seriousness of the situation, the fact that the administration’s counterterrorism czar is Sebastian Gorka, a boastful, self-styled terrorism “expert,” is a source of keen anxiety.

The dramatic escalation of settler violence in the West Bank reveals a profound transformation within Israel’s state institutions. Rather than serving as purported neutral enforcers of law and order, the military, Israeli police and the broader governmental apparatus have become increasingly aligned with — and at times directly complicit in — violent settler actions against Palestinians.

Given Iran’s history of malicious operations outside of its soil, the concern about the Iranian threat is unsurprising. Long before this current conflict, Iran has engaged in terrorist attacks, targeted assassinations, cyberattacks, and information operations—and it uses a network of proxies and spies to amplify its reach, including within the United States. Historically, the U.S. has managed to thwart Iranian operations on its soil. Now, this administration may have us unprepared.

AI has rapidly accelerated the transformation of the global violent extremist landscape by acting as a force multiplier in the manufacturing and dissemination of extremist propaganda. This presents a broader set of challenges for states and reinforces the need for technologically grounded counter-violent extremist frameworks.

The longer the war in Iran goes on, the greater the incentive for the Islamic Republic to apply all forms of asymmetric warfare, including retaliation that could affect the U.S. homeland, in hopes of coercing Trump to abandon his war aims.