In 2022, the U.S. released a National Defense Strategy document, which highlights a shift away from counterterrorism to integrated deterrence against major powers, specifically Russia and China. Despite this reorientation, the threat from terrorism is far from over. The 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel marked the largest offensive by this terrorist organization in the country’s history; it ignited another conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and empowered the Houthi militias in Yemen to attack U.S. ships. These series of connected conflicts and attacks demonstrate that the power of terrorist organizations to spur violence and regional instability remains potent. The scale of Hamas’ attacks also show that governments continue to struggle with counterterrorism (CT) measures, especially with eliminating the threat from established and long-lived organizations. In this report, we present an overview of the existing state of research on state responses to domestic and global terrorist threats, focused on literature published from 2010 through 2023. This report is based on research conducted for the Global Responses to Asymmetric Threats project, which is part of a broader research effort, Irregular Warfare Net Assessment Data Structure (IW-NEADS).
Publication Information
Radziszewski, Elizabeth, and Polina Kharmats. 2024. "Government Responses to Asymmetric Threats: The State of the Literature on Counterterrorism from 2010 to 2023." College Park, MD: START (December).