Approaches for Countering Violent Extremism at Home and Abroad

terrorism countering violent extremism psychology of terrorism counterterrorism

The previous section of this volume revealed that trends in transnational terrorist threats are sobering—the threat from ISIL (also known as ISIS or Islamic State) has made radicalization to extreme violence a truly global phenomenon, differently and more broadly than threats from al-Qaeda and related groups. One might be tempted to think, “These trends are making it harder for us to win.” An apt analogy is that “countering terrorism” as exemplified by military and law enforcement action is like an average person playing one-on-one basketball against LeBron James, only the rules are that no matter how many points the average person scores, the only way to win is for the average person to block every shot LeBron attempts.