Terrorism & Counterterrorism   Aug 8, 2011 Snapshot

The War on Terror in Retrospect

The costs of the 9/11 attacks and the “war on terrorism” that followed were staggering—not only in blood and treasure, but in psychological stability as well. A decade...

Gideon Rose

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   July 1975 Essay

The Strategy of Terrorism

A history of terrorism from the Middle Ages onward, with analysis of terrorist strategies--and how governments can defeat them.

David Fromkin

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   November/December 1998 Comment

License to Kill: Usama bin Ladin's Declaration of Jihad

A little-noticed declaration of jihad by Usama bin Ladin in an Arabic newspaper underscores the Islamist's main grievance: infidel U.S. troops in Arabia.

Bernard Lewis

Biological Weapons   March/April 1999 Review Essay

It Could Happen Here: Facing the New Terrorism

A raft of new books confronts a very real threat--the terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction--and propose vital, though moderate, responses.

Reviewed by Gideon Rose

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   November/December 1999 Essay

The Taliban: Exporting Extremism

Across one of the world's most sensitive regions, radical Islam and repressive politics are gaining ground. As they consolidate their power over Afghanistan, the...

Ahmed Rashid

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   November/December 2001 Comment

The Sentry's Solitude

The American imperium in the Arab-Muslim world has hatched a monster; primacy has begotten its nemesis. Pax Americana is here to stay -- but so too is the resistance...

Fouad Ajami

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   January/February 2002 Essay

Somebody Else's Civil War

Osama bin Laden's attacks on the United States were aimed at another audience: the entire Muslim world. Hoping that U.S. retaliation would unite the faithful against...

Michael Scott Doran

Economics   January/February 2002 Essay

America the Vulnerable

September 11 revealed the soft underbelly of globalization: trade and travel lanes so open that they allow terrorists to do their worst. The need for greater oversight...

Stephen E. Flynn

Economics   March/April 2002 Comment

The Reluctant Imperialist: Terrorism, Failed States, and the Case for American Empire

Failed states are increasingly trapped in a cycle of poverty and violence. The solution is for the United States and its allies to learn to love imperialism -- again....

Sebastian Mallaby

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   September/October 2002 Essay

America's Imperial Ambition

The concepts emerging from the Bush administration's war on terrorism form a neoimperial vision in which the United States arrogates to itself the global role of...

G. John Ikenberry

Law of War   January/February 2004 Comment

The Law of War in the War on Terror

The Bush administration has literalized its "war" on terrorism, dissolving the legal boundaries between what a government can do in peacetime and what's allowed in...

Kenneth Roth

Law of War   May/June 2004 Response

Combatants or Criminals? How Washington Should Handle Terrorists

Fighting a War Under Its Rules...

Ruth Wedgwood & Kenneth Roth

War & Military Strategy   January/February 2006 Review Essay

Grading the War on Terrorism

Policymakers need a guide to the complexities and challenges of the struggle against terrorism. Unfortunately, two authors who could have written one have chosen...

Reviewed by Richard A. Falkenrath

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   September/October 2006 Comment

Is There Still a Terrorist Threat?: The Myth of the Omnipresent Enemy

Despite all the ominous warnings of wily terrorists and imminent attacks, there has been neither a successful strike nor a close call in the United States since 9/11....

John Mueller

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   May/June 2007 Essay

Al Qaeda Strikes Back

By rushing into Iraq instead of finishing off the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Washington has unwittingly helped its enemies: al Qaeda has more bases, more partners,...

Bruce Riedel

Security   November/December 2007 Essay

Can the War on Terror Be Won?

It can, but only if U.S. officials start to think clearly about what success in the war on terror would actually look like. Victory will come only when Washington...

Philip H. Gordon

Law of War   July/August 2008 Review Essay

Terror and the Law

Benjamin Wittes’ Law and the Long War is required reading for anyone interested in the legal challenges posed by the war on terror....

Reviewed by Curtis A. Bradley

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   March/April 2011 Essay

How al Qaeda Works

Al Qaeda is stronger today than when it carried out the 9/11 attacks. Accounts that contend that it is on the decline treat the central al Qaeda organization...

Leah Farrall

Security   May/June 2011 Essay

Recalibrating Homeland Security

As the recent fiasco with body scanners at airports demonstrated, the United States' homeland security strategy is off track. It has failed to harness two vital assets...

Stephen Flynn

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   May 11, 2011 Snapshot

Al Qaeda Without Bin Laden

Al Qaeda is likely to survive bin Laden's killing for one simple reason: the group had already largely passed him by....

Brynjar Lia

Security   September/October 2011 Essay

Al Qaeda's Challenge

On 9/11, the global jihadist movement burst into the world's consciousness, but a decade later, thanks in part to the Arab Spring and the killing of Osama bin Laden,...

William McCants