The counterterrorism community faces growing challenges in anticipating how emerging technologies might be weaponized in novel terrorist attacks. Experts warn that failures of strategic imagination could leave nations vulnerable to threats they have yet to envision.
New Terrorist Technologies 25 Years After 9/11
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Analysis:
25 Years After 9/11, What Are We Failing to Imagine Now?
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Analysis
25 Years After 9/11, What Are We Failing to Imagine Now?
The counterterrorism community struggles with how technology might be applied to novel use cases.
September 7, 2026, 12:28 AM
By **Colin P. Clarke**, the director of research at the Soufan Group and a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, and **Clara Broekaert**, a security researcher focused on foreign interference, technology, and terrorism.
!A surveillance camera photograph of two men Identified by authorities as suspected hijackers Abdulaziz Alomari and Mohammed Atta as they pass through airport security September 11, 2001.
*A surveillance camera photograph of two men Identified by authorities as suspected hijackers Abdulaziz Alomari and Mohammed Atta as they pass through airport security September 11, 2001.*
A surveillance camera shows two men identified by authorities as suspected hijackers (from left) Abdulaziz Alomari and Mohammed Atta as they pass through airport security on Sept. 11, 2001. Getty Images/U.S. Navy
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