Rhetoric and Reality: Obama’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy

CNAS has just released another of the major projects I’ve been working on this spring:  Rhetoric and Reality, an analysis of the Obama administration’s strategy for combating terrorism and countering violent extremism.   I’ll have more to say about this soon, but for now, allow me to quote from the press release: President Barack Obama shifted ...

CNAS has just released another of the major projects I've been working on this spring:  Rhetoric and Reality, an analysis of the Obama administration's strategy for combating terrorism and countering violent extremism.   I'll have more to say about this soon, but for now, allow me to quote from the press release:

CNAS has just released another of the major projects I’ve been working on this spring:  Rhetoric and Reality, an analysis of the Obama administration’s strategy for combating terrorism and countering violent extremism.   I’ll have more to say about this soon, but for now, allow me to quote from the press release:

President Barack Obama shifted away from the rhetorical framework of former President George W. Bush’s “Global War on Terror” because he believed this would allow America to more effectively combat the challenge posed by violent extremists such as al-Qaeda.  Despite this change in rhetoric, and dramatic changes from the early years after 9/11, the Obama administration’s approach demonstrates striking continuity with the policies and philosophies adopted by the Bush administration in its final two years. This report – authored by Marc Lynch – examines the Administration’s efforts to change America’s rhetoric and adapt to new threats.  Lynch calls on the Obama administration to more clearly articulate its counterterrorism strategy, adapt to new domestic threats, coordinate efforts to engage publics and counter extremist narratives and prepare for a successful attack well in advance.  He also warns of the inherent tensions that arise from the administration’s rhetorical commitment to the rule of law as essential to a durable, legitimate campaign against violent extremists even as it escalates its covert drone operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan and counterterrorism partnerships in ungoverned territories.

Download the report from CNAS here

Marc Lynch is associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, where he is the director of the Institute for Middle East Studies and of the Project on Middle East Political Science. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He is the author of The Arab Uprising (March 2012, PublicAffairs).

He publishes frequently on the politics of the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Arab media and information technology, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, and Islamist movements. Twitter: @abuaardvark

More from Foreign Policy

Residents evacuated from Shebekino and other Russian towns near the border with Ukraine are seen in a temporary shelter in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.
Residents evacuated from Shebekino and other Russian towns near the border with Ukraine are seen in a temporary shelter in Belgorod, Russia, on June 2.

Russians Are Unraveling Before Our Eyes

A wave of fresh humiliations has the Kremlin struggling to control the narrative.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shake hands in Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva shake hands in Beijing.

A BRICS Currency Could Shake the Dollar’s Dominance

De-dollarization’s moment might finally be here.

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in an episode of The Diplomat
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler in an episode of The Diplomat

Is Netflix’s ‘The Diplomat’ Factual or Farcical?

A former U.S. ambassador, an Iran expert, a Libya expert, and a former U.K. Conservative Party advisor weigh in.

An illustration shows the faces of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted by wavy lines of a fragmented map of Europe and Asia.
An illustration shows the faces of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted by wavy lines of a fragmented map of Europe and Asia.

The Battle for Eurasia

China, Russia, and their autocratic friends are leading another epic clash over the world’s largest landmass.