A&Q is a special series that inverts the classic Q&A, taking some of the most frequently posed solutions to pressing matters of policy and exploring their complexity.
March alone saw a string of major terrorist attacks around the world—including in Ivory Coast, Belgium, Pakistan, Iraq, and Turkey—that together killed more than 100 people. The drumbeat of attacks seems horrifyingly constant, and underscores the fact that nearly 15 years since the United States launched its so-called global war on terror, victory is nowhere in sight.
So what would it take? Why haven’t the many counterterrorism policies tried in various countries around the world, ranging from major wars to tightened surveillance to Twitter counterpropaganda to outright repression, seemed to have made the problem less severe? Is it true, as Foreign Policy suggested recently, that when it comes to fighting terrorism, the international community is out of ideas? Or, with ISIS steadily losing territory in Iraq and Syria even as it lashes out at the West, is the current campaign to some degree working?
Terrorism is an old phenomenon, and it’s one various countries around the world have absorbed and dealt with in various ways. In considering how to approach the current problem of terrorism around the world, it’s worth asking what’s really new about it, which precedents can inform future responses, and what past failures can teach for the way forward.