Future Threat of Terrorism: Five to Twenty Years in the Future Discussion Chapter

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 1849 words ( 6 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 2

Page 1 of 6

Terrorism and Counterterrorism

Is the United States "winning" the war on terrorism? Are we losing? How do you define winning? (300-400 words) to the following questions and post it to the discussion forum, "Winning." In your response, please cite examples from current events that support your answer.

As early as 2008, the Council on Foreign Relations noted that there was increasing evidence that the U.S. was 'winning' the war on terror: "al Qaeda has not managed to mount any major attacks on an American target, much less on the American homeland, since 9/11. Those attacks that have succeeded have been fairly minor compared with past al-Qaeda atrocities: a 2004 assault on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killed five local employees and no Americans" (Blake 2008). Since then, attacks on U.S. soil, such as the Boston Marathon bombings, while absolutely devastating to the individuals personally affected, have been relatively self-contained and no terrorist attacks have attained the scope and ambition of the 9/11 bombings.

The U.S. has made major inroads into depleting the resources of organized terrorist infrastructures like al-Qaida and has improved information and resource coordination domestically to more effectively respond to terrorist attacks. However, the evidence suggests that "even with the killings of bin Laden and nearly all senior al-Qaeda leaders, the generally optimistic and nationalistic American people still seem to see the war on terrorism as something of a stalemate. Such is the problem when you are fighting against a somewhat abstract concept and ideology rather than a defined nation. Progress is harder to measure when you can't quantify (or even see) the enemy" (Boot 2013). Fighting terrorism can feel like a game of 'whac-a-mole' whereby once one terrorist group is contained, another pops up somewhere else. Unlike a rogue state which can finally be overtaken and a new leadership installed, terrorism (even radical Islamic terrorism) is more of a diffuse philosophy and set of techniques -- radicalism can be justified by an ever-shifting ideology in the minds of America's enemies and even while the U.S. strives to fight terrorism, new techniques and approaches can pop up that can be hard to screen for or contain.

References

Blake, A. (2013). The Washington Post. Retrieved from: The unwinnable war against terrorism.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/04/17/the-unwinnable-war-on-terrorism/

Boot, M. (2008). Are we winning the war on terror? Council on Foreign Relations

Retrieved from: http://www.

Stuck Writing Your "Future Threat of Terrorism: Five to Twenty Years in the Future" Discussion Chapter?

View All Our Example Future Threat of Terrorism: Five to Twenty Years in the Future Discussion Chapter

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

cfr.org/terrorism/we-winning-war-terror/p16838

Hot Spots

Where is the next geographic terrorism "hot spot" likely to be?

Will global levels of terrorist activity and violence rise or fall in the next two decades?

What will be the flashpoint issue of the next two decades? (300-400 words)

The Sinai Peninsula has seen a recent upsurge in terrorist attacks given the instability in the area: "Egyptian authorities have lost control of large swathes of Sinai since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. A security vacuum has allowed for increased organizational and operational capacity of terrorist groups in the area. Additionally, extremism has been on the rise since Mohamed Morsi's ouster in July 2013 and the subsequent crackdown on political Islam and Islamist parties" (A history of terrorism in Egypt's Sinai, 2014, MEI). One sad but true fact is that political instability, even political instability with a positive trajectory in favor of democracy, frequently creates fertile grounds for terrorism. Egypt is likely to be a 'hot spot' in the near future as a result as are all Arab nations that experienced the 'Arab Spring.' In response to heightened security concerns in the Sinai, Egypt launched a new military campaign specifically designed to combat terrorism. "Operating with Israel's approval, it is the largest military campaign in Sinai since the 1973 Arab-Israeli War" (A history of terrorism in Egypt's Sinai, 2014, MEI). Given the regional instability in the Middle East, which seems unlikely to abate, combined with the lack of meaningful progress in the Israeli-Palestinian talks, the prospect of terrorism increasing worldwide in the next 20 years seems likely.

In the long-term future, there is widespread speculation that terrorist training camps may begin to proliferate in African 'hot spot' areas. "In a recent case, the FBI investigated what had become of a group of young Somali-American men who lived in the Minneapolis area and disappeared. Relatives said they had abruptly left the country to join a suspected terrorist organization in Somalia" (Picarelli 2009). Although traditionally large cities have been the targets of the most serious terrorist threats, the threat seems to have become more widespread in the U.S., fanning out to smaller metropolitan centers and is likely to do so within the next 20-30 years, particularly as security grows tighter in more traditional locations such as New York and L.A......

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Future Threat Of Terrorism Five To Twenty Years In The Future" (2014, April 22) Retrieved May 21, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/future-threat-terrorism-five-twenty-years-188416

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Future Threat Of Terrorism Five To Twenty Years In The Future" 22 April 2014. Web.21 May. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/future-threat-terrorism-five-twenty-years-188416>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Future Threat Of Terrorism Five To Twenty Years In The Future", 22 April 2014, Accessed.21 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/future-threat-terrorism-five-twenty-years-188416
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example