Publication

This publication assesses US efforts to craft a national counterterrorism policy to defeat al-Qaida and related jihadist terrorist groups and protect the homeland. It further discusses what the metrics should be to gauge success in this regard. According to the author, an effective counterterrorism strategy against al-Qaida must feature three elements: a hard counterterrorist component, focused on military, law enforcement, and the interdiction of terrorist financing; the need to protect the United States from further catastrophic terrorist attacks; and a transitional counterterrorist component, designed to combat the ideology driving jihadist terrorism and to engage Muslim nations in democratization and transformation efforts.