Global

How do we fight terrorism abroad?

At the same time that we are working to secure and defend the American homeland, the United States must also be aggressively waging the war on terrorism abroad. The United States is safer if terrorists never reach our borders and the whole world is safer if they never turn to terrorism at all. Understanding these facts, the United States has developed a two-pronged approach to winning the war on terrorism overseas. First, we must identify and neutralize those individuals who represent threats to American interests. Naturally, some of these people are actual terrorists, with the intention of traveling to the United States or our foreign installations and causing death and destruction. Others are terrorist supporters, including governments, financiers, religious leaders, and instructors, all of whom are essential to the continued implementation and success of terrorism. Their work is as deadly as that of their operational allies and must be stopped if we hope to prevent further attacks.

At the same time that the United States is fighting terrorism where it already exists, it also has developed and implemented a multidimensional approach to preventing the spread of radicalism and the education of new terrorists. Certain conditions generally accompany the decision of an individual to turn to terrorism, including socioeconomic status, integration into the community, level and type of education, and exposure to foreign cultures. While these are not foolproof predictors of potential radical sympathies, they so frequently accompany a susceptibility to radicalization and a willingness to use violence that their association is generally accepted by most analysts. If the United States can reduce the pervasiveness and potency of these factors, it may also be able to control the spread of terrorism worldwide.