Daniel Byman is foreign policy editor of Lawfare. He is a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, where he focuses on counterterrorism and Middle East security. He is also a professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
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The attacks suggest both the danger posed by foreign fighters and the importance of government efforts in stopping them.
The terrorist attacks on the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in New Zealand, which so far have killed 49 people and led to dozens more injuries, are only the latest in anti-Muslim right-wing violence that is plaguing many democracies around the world.
The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran has proved one of the most consequential events in the history of modern terrorism.
The Syria deployment was never well thought out. But it is both tragic and dangerous that the U.S. deployment is ending in an even less coherent way.
An end to the Saudi intervention is a good first step to ending suffering in Yemen, but by itself it will not be enough.
Counterterrorism officials must be on alert for the next cause that, like in Syria, produces a surge of foreign fighters and terrorism. But they should not assume past is prologue.
A Democratic House can help decrease the risk of terrorism, limit the endless post-9/11 wars, and restore some coherence to the U.S.’s Middle East policy.