Abstract
In March 2001, months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bruce Hoffman presciently testified before the U.S. Congress on the need for a grand strategic approach to countering the evolving threat of terrorism. According to Hoffman, because terrorism has become more complex, amorphous, and transnational in nature, “the distinction between domestic and international terrorist threats is eroding.” Hoffman expressed criticism of the law enforcement and criminal justice approach to countering terrorism, arguing that it is also an intelligence and national security issue. The law enforcement approach, according to Hoffman, was thus “problematical, if not dangerously myopic, and deprives the U.S. of a critical advantage in the struggle against terrorism.”1 He thus called for a “clear, comprehensive and coherent strategy,” concluding that “without such a strategy, we risk embracing policies and pursuing solutions that may not only be dated, but may also have become irrelevant; we also lose sight of current and projected trends and patterns and thereby risk preparing to counter and respond to possibly illusory threats and challenges.”2
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Notes
See Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006).
For a more succinct description of the New Terrorism, see Bruce Hoffman, “The New Terrorism,” in Andrew Tan and Kumar Ramakrishna (eds), The New Terrorism: Anatomy, Trends and Counter-Strategies (Singapore: Times Academic/Eastern Universities Press, 2003).
Rohan Gunaratna, Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror (London: Hurst, 2002), p. 54.
Peter W. Galbraith, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006), pp. 83–84.
Rima Merriman, “Middle East Studies Seen as Against American Interests,” Jordan Times, March 11, 2004, http://www.arab2.com/n/newspaper/jordan-jordan-times.htm
Whalid Phares, The War of Ideas (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), p. 194.
See Terry Hartle’s defense against such criticism, in Terry W. Hartle, “International Programs in Higher Education and Questions of Bias,” Testimony Before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Select Education, June 19, 2003, http://republicans.edlabor.house.gov/archive/hearings/108th/sed/titlevi61903/hartle.htm
See John J. Mearsheimer, “E.H. Carr vs. Idealism: The Battle Rages On,” International Relations, 19(2), 2005.
David Martin Jones and Carl Ungerer, “Delusion Reigns in Terror Studies,” The Australian, September 15, 2006, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20413449-7583,00.html
Jason Burke, Al Qaeda (London: Penguin, 2007), p. 311.
See Brynjar Lia, “Al Qaeda’s Appeal: Understanding its Unique Selling Points,” Perspectives on Terrorism, 2(8), May 2008.
See Omar Ashour, “De-Radicalization of Jihad? The Impact of Egyptian Islamist Revisionists on Al Qaeda,” Perspectives on Terrorism, 2(5), March 2008.
See John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, “Can Saddam Be Contained? History Says Yes” (Occasional Paper, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2002).
Thomas R. Mockaitis and Paul B. Rich (eds), Grand Strategy in the War Against Terrorism (London: Frank Cass, 2003).
Thomas Mockaitis, “Counter-Terrorism,” in Andrew T. H. Tan (ed), The Politics of Terrorism (London: Routledge, 2006), p. 106.
Stephen Biddle, American Grand Strategy After 9/11: An Assessment (Monograph, April 2005, Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College), pp. 31–32, http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB603.pdf
Thomas Mockaitis, The “New” Terrorism: Myths and Reality (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007), p. 125.
See, for instance, David C. Rapoport, “The Fourth Wave: September 11 in the History of Terrorism,” in Current History, December 2001.
David C. Rapoport, “Modern Terror: History and Special Features,” The Politics of Terrorism (London: Routledge, 2006).
Steven Metz, “Learning From Iraq: Counterinsurgency in American Strategy,” (Monograph, January 2007, Strategic Studies Institute), p. vi, http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB752.pdf
Cited in Steven Metz, “Learning From Iraq: Counterinsurgency in American Strategy,” p. 24. Isaiah Wilson is also cited in Thomas E Ricks, “Army Historian Cites Lack of Postwar Plan: Major Calls Effort in Iraq Mediocre,” The Washington Post, 25 December 2004, p. A01.
Steven Metz, “New Challenges and Old Concepts: Understanding 21st Century Insurgency,” in Parameters, Winter 2007–8, 21–22.
For a more detailed discussion and survey, see Dennis Pluchinsky, “Ethnic Terrorism: Themes and Variations,” David W. Brannan, “Left and Right Wing Political Terrorism,” Mark Juergensmeyer, “Religion and the New Terrorism,” and Adam Dolnik and Rohan Gunaratna, “On the Nature of Religious Terrorism,” in Andrew T. H. Tan, The Politics of Terrorism (London: Routledge, 2006).
Andrew T. H. Tan, “Terrorism and Insurgency in Southeast Asia,” in Andrew T. H. Tan (ed), A Handbook of Terrorism and Insurgency in Southeast Asia (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2007), p. 4.
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© 2009 Andrew T H Tan
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Tan, A.T.H. (2009). The Evolution of U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy: From GWOT to COIN. In: U.S. Strategy Against Global Terrorism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230103474_6
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