• TRUTH DECAYA Terrorism Label That Comes Before the Facts Can Turn “Domestic Terrorism” into a Useless Designation

    By Brian O'Neill

    Shortly after Alex Pretti was killed by ICE agents, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said he committed an “act of domestic terrorism.” Noem made the same accusation against Good. But a “domestic terrorism” label that comes before the facts does not just risk being wrong in one case. It teaches the public, case by case, to treat the term as propaganda rather than diagnosis. When that happens, the category becomes less useful precisely when the country needs clarity most.

  • EXTREMISMThe “Sacred” Pledge That Will Power the Relaunch of Far-Right Militia Oath Keepers

    By Alexander Lowie

    Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia, announced in November 2025 that he will relaunch the group after it disbanded following his prison sentence in 2023. Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other crimes committed during the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, but President Trump commuted his sentence to time served.

  • TERRORISMTen Years Later: The Legacy of the Paris Attacks on Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attacks in the West

    By Alexandre Rodde

    A decade ago, the terrorist attacks in Paris illustrated the risks and challenges posed by complex coordinated terrorist attacks in a Western capital. These marauding attacks, striking multiple scenes in quick succession, were different from the bombing of public transport in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005. Western law enforcement response has evolved in order better to deal with such attacks, but the constantly evolving modus operandi used by terrorists requires a strong and constant anticipation effort by law enforcement.

  • TERRORISMThe Bondi Beach Shooting Shows ISIS Threat in Australia and Beyond

    By Bruce Hoffman

    The attack in Sidney, Australia, comes at a time when several alleged terror plots in Europe have reportedly been foiled. The resilience of the ISIS ideology and ongoing concerns over extremist violence put an added burden on security officials to safeguard the many public events occurring at year’s end.

  • TERRORISMWhy Public Views of Terrorism Don’t Match the Evidence, and What the Government Needs to Do to Keep People Safe

    By Sara Fregonese and Paul Simpson

    It is essential to address the misalignments between public understanding of terrorism and the current evidence. The public needs clear, easy to remember, and updated information about current threats. Without this, people will struggle to recognize current threats and attune their instincts on how to react to them correctly.

  • BONDI BEACH TERROR ATTACKBondi Terror: Attack Reinforces the Need for Security Frameworks That Manage Risk

    By John Coyne and James Corera

    The terror attack at Bondi Beach on Sunday should be understood not only as an act of violence but as a stress test of Australia’s security, social and policy systems. The more consequential question is what this event reveals about the community assumptions that have quietly taken hold—and what follows if those assumptions are left unchallenged.

  • BONDI BEACH TERROR ATTACKBondi Attack Came After Huge Increase in Online Antisemitism: Research

    By Matteo Vergani

    As a researcher who studies hate and extremist violence, I am sadly not surprised by the terrorist attack on Bondi Beach. The Jewish community has been a top target for terrorist ideologies and groups for a long time. Many people working in this field have been expecting a serious attack on Australian soil.

  • TERRORISMAfghan Terrorism Is a Small Threat in the United States

    By Alex Nowrasteh

    It is still not clear whether Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who murdered a West Virginia National Guard member in Washington, D.C., two weeks ago, was a terrorist – but assuming he is a terrorist, it would mean that since 1975, Lakanwal is the only Afghan terrorist to have murdered somebody on U.S. soil in an attack. In other words, the annual chance of being murdered in an Afghan terrorist attack on U.S. soil is about 1 in 14.2 billion per year. The annual chance of being murdered in a normal homicide is about 1 in 14,000 per year, approximately one million times greater.

  • EXTREMISMFar-Right Extremists Have Been Organizing Online Since Before the Internet – and AI Is Their Next Frontier

    By Michelle Lynn Kahn

    How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? Far-right extremists have long pioneered innovative ways to exploit technological progress and free speech. Efforts to counter this radicalization are challenged to stay one step ahead of the far right’s technological advances.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHLabeling Dissent as Terrorism: New U.S. Domestic Terrorism Priorities Raise Constitutional Alarms

    By Melinda Haas

    There is no single official definition of terrorism in U.S. law, but all the different definitions focus on identifying violent or dangerous acts done with the intent to intimidate or coerce civilians or influence government policy. But more than redefining terrorism,National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-7, issued on 2 September 2025 (NSPM-7) reorients the machinery of national security toward the policing of belief. The directive’s emphasis on ideological orientations –“anti-Christianity, “anti-capitalism,” and “anti-American” views –as indicators of domestic terrorism potentially jeopardizes First Amendment rights.

  • TERRORISMWhat Can Be Done About Hamas Fighters?

    By Brian Michael Jenkins

    Peace is a prerequisite to the ambitious economic development plans that could transform Gaza. Securing that peace, however, requires addressing the future role of Hamas’s fighters.

  • BIODEFENSEPhysical Approaches to Civilian Biodefense

    Progress in biological sciences and technologies will offer more opportunities to improve human well-being in the coming decades, but this progress may also lower barriers that are blocking bad actors from engineering pathogens to cause destruction. We need to identify potential preparedness measures for challenging biological threats.

  • POLITICAL VIOLENCEWhy Was James Garfield Assassinated? A Historian Reveals the Real Story Behind Netflix’s “Death by Lightning”

    By Cody Mello-Klein

    The real history behind James Garfield’s murder is as much about the corrupt political system he railed against — and how his death ultimately shattered it.

  • FAKE EMERGENCIESTrump Debanks the Left? Antifa Terrorist Designation Means New Pressure

    By Nicholas Anthony

    Many people celebrated President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting “political debanking.” Yet, those same people seem to be silent now that the president has created new pressures to implement political debanking by effectively debanking the left. 

  • EXTREMISMWhite Nationalism Fuels Tolerance for Political Violence Nationwide

    By Murat Haner, Justin Pickett, and Melissa Sloan

    Political violence is certainly not new in American society, but current patterns differ in key ways. We found that, today, white nationalism is a key driver of support for political violence –a sign that white nationalism poses substantial danger to U.S. political stability.