The Transatlantic Alliance and Terrorism: Aligning Responses and Cooperation to Threats and Challenges

Abstract

The current threat environment posed by the emergence and spread of ISIS and the stubborn resilience and long-game approach of al-Qaeda makes a new strategy and new organizational and institutional behaviors necessary. The non-traditional challenges to U.S. and European national security and foreign policy posed by elusive and deadly irregular adversaries emphasizes the need to anchor changes that will more effectively close the gap between detecting irregular adversarial activity and rapidly defeating it. The effectiveness of this strategy will be based on our capacity to think like a networked enemy, in anticipation of how they may act in a variety of situations, aided by different resources. This goal requires that the U.S. and Europe organize our collective response for maximum efficiency, information sharing, and the ability to function quickly and effectively under new operational definitions.