Terrorism: What the next president will face
Richard Clarke, special editor of a new volume on the terrorist threat the United States is facing: “Like the cold war, this struggle is ideological at its root and will likely take many years to end. As with the cold war, however, skillful management could eventually cause the threat to go away, not with a bang but with a whimper”
Tomorrow will be the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Policymakers and citizens alike should be asking this question: What is the nature of the terrorist threat against the United States and other nations of the world and how should the next president address that threat upon taking office in January 2009? These questions are at the center of a special volume of the Annals, edited by Richard Clarke, as well as in a series of interviews with terrorism experts featured in the volume conducted by Philadelphia Inquirer foreign policy columnist Trudy Rubin.
The authors in the volume, including Clarke, Peter Bergen, Kenneth Pollack, and Bruce Riedel, examine questions ranging from whether al Qaeda remains a serious threat to the probability of another attack on the United States in the next five years. They also discuss the little-examined threat from European terrorists and present strategies for fighting the terrorist training grounds in the tribal lands of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.
The ANNALS July 2008 volume Terrorism: What the Next President Will Face is available free of charge until 20 January 2009. Tomorrow, 11 September 2008, the Philadelphia Inquirer will post the series of in-depth podcasts of columnist Trudy Rubin interviewing several of the volume’s authors.
The U.S. approach to fighting terrorism is among the most debated issues in the 2008 presidential campaign. The new administration will face an immediate need to address Islamist extremist terrorism and develop a long-term strategy that will shape U.S. interests abroad and life at home. The special volume of the ANNALS provides useful insights that can help influence policy choices and strategies for addressing the challenges of combating terrorism. Special editor Clarke served the past three presidents as a senior White House advisor on counterterrorism. Clarke has pulled together a panel of scholars and experts to prepare a detailed background and agenda for a U.S. strategy to address the problem of Islamist extremist terrorism. “Like the cold war, this struggle is ideological at its root and will likely take many years to end,” writes Clarke in the introduction. “As with the cold war, however, skillful management could eventually cause the threat to go away, not with a bang but with a whimper.”
The authors provide a snapshot of terrorism around the world — from Iran to Indonesia, from Europe to Pakistan, from Iraq to the United States — and offer recommendations for the next president to combat terrorism. This volume covers nuclear terrorism, the fight against al-Qaeda and its franchises, efforts to prevent further radicalization abroad and at home, terrorist financing, counterterrorism intelligence, and the tools necessary to win the war on terrorism.
The volume is divided into four parts.
- “Al Qaeda’s Incarnations” examines the recent status of this violent and well-known Islamist extremist group.
- “Motivations” attempts to explain the impetus for terrorists to carry out violence against innocent people.
- “Specific U.S. Policies and Programs” reviews important areas of expertise where the United States must succeed in order to counter violent groups.
- “Overall U.S. Strategy” proposes ways to develop broad strategies to counter violent Islamist extremists.
