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Vehicles as a Terrorist Weapon: History of the Last 20 Years
The last twenty years have seen dozens of terrorist attacks in which the perpetrators used a vehicle as a weapon.
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China’s Counterterrorism Ambitions in Africa
Africa is now the epicenter of global terrorism due to al-Qaeda and Islamic State militant violence. Jason Warner writes that “China has begun quietly making inroads to become a much more significant counterterrorism partner with African states, promising potential partners increased cooperation under the auspices of its Global Security Initiative (GSI).” The ways that China is seeking to insert itself into the African counterterrorism landscape, thus far, raise no major red flags, although points of friction might emerge.
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Counterterrorism Implications of a Second Trump Presidency
As Trump’s longtime friend, the legendary boxer Mike Tyson, once said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” The Trump administration will need to come into the White House on day one with a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy while preparing to absorb and respond to whatever punches terrorist groups will land during the next four years in office.
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Climate of Fear Is Driving Local Officials to Quit – New Study from California Finds Threats, Abuse Rampant
Threats and harassment are pushing some politicians out of office, scaring off some would-be candidates and even compelling some elected officials to change their vote.
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We Must Understand Why Youth Are radicalized. It’s Not Just Manipulation
Youth radicalization and its connection to political violence and terrorism is an urgent concern. Despite consistent warnings from intelligence and law enforcement, public discussion around this issue often falls short. We need to understand why it persists and how to disrupt it before it escalates.
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Syria After Assad: What to Know About HTS, Hezbollah, and Iran
The ascendance of Sunni Islamist rebels in Syria should be viewed with great caution by Western powers, but the Assad regime’s collapse disables a critical node in Iran’s regional proxy network.
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Islamist Terror Incidents Targeting U.S. Increase in 2024
Islamist terror incidents targeting the United States increased in 2024 after several years of reduced activity, with federal and state authorities arresting individuals in seven different incidents on charges related to five unsuccessful plots and two actual attacks.
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The Chilling Crime Spree of The Order – and Its Lasting Effect on Today’s White Supremacists
The new historical crime drama, “The Order,” starring Jude Law and Nicholas Holt, is being described as a riveting “cat-and-mouse thriller.” But for criminologists like us, the white supremacist extremism that takes place in the film is not a nod to a distant past, but a reflection of beliefs and rhetoric that still percolate on social media and inspire acts of terror.
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Lines on a 1916 Map May Not Keep Syria Together
The question most observers are now asking is: what if any form of stable central government might emerge from this lightning fast upending of the power dynamics in Syria? A possible lesson from history is that insurgent armies of diverse allegiance, religion and ideology are capable of capturing cities, but their ability to administrate them is less certain.
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Why Bashar al-Assad’s Security State Collapsed So Dramatically in Syria
While it may seem like the events in Syria in the last ten days came out of nowhere, the rapid fall of the Assad regime has a long history.
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Smart Pressure: Conceptualizing Counterterrorism for a New Era
When it comes to counterterrorism, the United States has been living through an inflection point. It wants to focus less on terrorism so it can place more emphasis on strategic competition, but key terrorist adversaries remain committed. The terrorism landscape and the approaches used by key terror adversaries have also been evolving
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The Russia-Iran-Assad ‘Axis of the Vulnerable’ Is Cracking in Syria
Starting in 2016, Russia and Iran, propping up the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Since 2020, Assad has presided in name over part of a fractured country. Now Assad does not even preside over his share of the partition. And his Russian and Iranian enablers, overstretched and isolated by much of the world, are not in a position to restore his paper rule.
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The FBI’s Counterterrorism Division Turns 25
November 21 marks the 25th anniversary of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, or CTD. In the time since its creation, the division has worked to counter the constantly evolving threat of terrorism at home and abroad.
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Organizing for Innovation: Lessons from Digital Counterterrorism
This article explores five factors that were key to facilitating innovation in Facebook’s approach to countering the Islamic State—and that I argue are more generalizable. They are: people, organization, legitimacy, tools, and collaboration. It also identifies lessons that can be learned from that experience.
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AI, Bioterrorism and the Urgent Need for Australian Action
Experts worry that, within a few years, AI will put that capability into the hands of tens of thousands of people. Without a new approach to regulation, the risk of bioterrorism and lab leaks will soar.
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The long view
The Drone Threat to America’s Cities
Drones are coming for our cities. The tech is cheap, the threat is real, and our defenses are nearly nonexistent. To avoid that ugly reality, we need to come up with better ideas, and we need them fast. Because ready or not, the drones are coming.
Remotely Coerced Violence: 764, The Com Network, and the Hybridization of Threats
Nihilistic violent extremism is best understood as a victim-driven, youth-centered online ecosystem in which status, belonging, and identity are earned through the production, circulation, and escalation of harm. It combine sadistic online exploitation, cybercrime, self-directed violence, animal abuse, school-violence threats, and terrorist or violent-extremist conduct.
How Cybercriminal Networks Evolve into Global Security Threats
Cyberattacks have become an increasingly common part of modern life, disrupting hospitals, schools, businesses and governments around the world. New research points to a new threat: online communities can also spread political extremism.
‘Nihilistic Violent Extremism’ Isn’t a Thing, and I’m Tired of Pretending It Is
“Nihilistic violent extremism” (NVE) is a term used to bring together an array of hateful actors who, working online, try to convince people to kill themselves, produce child sexual abuse material, and other hateful actions. But the term confuses more than it helps—NVE is too vague a concept and encompasses too wide a range of behavior, leading to misunderstanding, poor analysis, and potential response mistakes.