What Makes a Good Counterterrorism Strategy?

25 Years After 9/11, What Makes a Good Counterterrorism Strategy?

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Situation Report:

What Makes a Good Counterterrorism Strategy?

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Situation Report

A weekly digest of national security, defense, and cybersecurity news from Foreign Policy reporters John Haltiwanger and Rishi Iyengar. Delivered Thursday.

What Makes a Good Counterterrorism Strategy?

Three top experts on the terror threat 25 years after 9/11.

By **John Haltiwanger**, a staff writer at *Foreign Policy*, and **Rishi Iyengar**, a staff writer at *Foreign Policy*.

!The Tribute in Light installation is tested over lower Manhattan in New York City on Sept. 9.

*The Tribute in Light installation is tested over lower Manhattan in New York City on Sept. 9.*

The Tribute in Light installation is tested over lower Manhattan in New York City on Sept. 9. Jeremy Weine/Getty Images

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September 10, 2026, 5:53 PM

Welcome back to *Foreign Policy*’s Situation Report.

Here’s what’s on tap for the day: The **counterterrorism** landscape 25 years after **9/11**, **Germany**’s reluctance to **punish Russia** more severely, and the **United States and Iran** continuing to **exchange fire.**

Welcome back to *Foreign Policy*’s Situation Report.

Here’s what’s on tap for the day: The **counterterrorism** landscape 25 years after **9/11**, **Germany**’s reluctance to **punish Russia** more severely, and the **United States and Iran** continuing to **exchange fire.**

---

**Avoiding Whiplash**

Twenty-five years after the 9/11 attacks, global jihadism is no longer viewed as the top terrorism threat to the U.S. homeland, and Washington’s foreign-policy priorities have shifted away from counterterrorism and toward great-power competition. But terrorism remains a challenge for the United States both at home and abroad, particularly as its adversaries increasingly look to exploit rapidly evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

At the Soufan Center’s Global Summit on Terrorism and Political Violence in New York City on Wednesday, John moderated a fireside chat with three top experts—who served and advised both Republican and Democratic administrations—on what a 21st-century counterterrorism strategy should look like. Much of the discussion focused on how Washington can best confront emerging threats.

The 9/11 Commission Report attributed the attacks, in part, to a “failure of imagination” from the U.S. government and intelligence community. Asked whether the United States is currently failing to imagine new terror threats to the homeland, Jen Easterly, who served as the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency from 2021 to 2025, recalled how the Boston Marathon bombers learned how to make explosives via a digital al Qaeda magazine—and related this to the capabilities that AI offers.

For instance, she said, imagine AI generating instructions, precision imagery, or even shopping lists for “crude versions” of cyber, biological, and radiological weapons and putting that at the hands of hostile nations, terrorists, and criminals. This is “the world that we are racing toward at world-class marathon speed,” said Easterly, who is now the CEO of RSAC, a leading cybersecurity conference. There have already been examples of jihadi groups, including Boko Haram, using AI to help with a range of activities, from producing propaganda to planning attacks.

**Partnerships and learning.** AI is far from the only technology that’s exposing counterterrorism vulnerabilities for the United States and its allies. Drones and cyberattacks are also major concerns, particularly in relation to state-sponsored terrorism amid the Russia-Ukraine and U.S.-Iran wars. Maintaining and cultivating strong international partnerships will be crucial to confronting such challenges, the experts said.

The United States can better understand the threats that it’s facing by communicating with international partners that have faced similar threats, said Chris Costa, who served as a special assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council during the first Trump administration.

“We have to share those lessons,” Costa said. “Our adversaries are absolutely learning creatures,” he added. “They are learning day in and day out. We have to continue to learn as well.”

With the Trump administration’s penchant for antagonizing allies via insulting rhetoric (or provocative maps), tariffs, and other policies, there are fair questions to ask about the potential long-term consequences for U.S. intelligence gathering and counterterrorism.

The White House’s counterterrorism strategy has also generated controversy, with its focus on going after “narcoterrorists” and left-wing groups (and no attention granted to threats posed by the far right). Experts have said that the strategy is at odds with reality and driven by ideology.

In the discussion at the summit on Wednesday, the experts emphasized the importance of having an intelligence-driven, non-partisan counterterrorism strategy.

Though Costa declined to directly criticize the Trump administration, he said that building “trust” with foreign partners requires having a counterterrorism strategy that is “based on facts, based on the intelligence.”

When asked whether the United States is being complacent in confronting jihadism as it increasingly fo