CVE

Editor’s Note: Belgium has earned a bad name in counterterrorism circles, with critics charging that its security services did too little too late when it came to disrupting the Islamic State and other groups on Belgian soil. The tragic terrorist attack in Brussels two years ago, however, marked a turning point. Thomas Renard and Rik Coolsaet of Egmont detail the significant steps Belgium has taken in recent years to improve its counterterrorism capacity.

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Editor’s Note: The call to take down terrorist-linked content on the Internet is both sensible and limited in its effectiveness. Terrorists use many different aspects of the Internet for many different purposes, and taking down propaganda and hostile accounts is not enough to stop the effectiveness of their strategies. Audrey Alexander and Bill Braniff, of GWU and Maryland respectively, call for a different approach. They argue for going after more portions of the terrorists' online ecosystem, expanding the campaign, and thinking more broadly about the problem.

Editor’s Note: The Islamic State is weakened militarily, but many of the ideas it champions remain strong. In addition, the group continues to spread its message both virtually and in face-to-face settings. Katerina Papatheodorou of GWU's Program on Extremism argues that the United States and its allies can, and must, do better at blending online and offline efforts as part of their strategy to counter violent extremism.

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Editor’s Note: The neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville and the killing of a counter-protester highlighted to Americans what terrorism watchers have long known: Right-wing extremism in the United States is alive and dangerous. Trump's election appears to have invigorated the movement, and the attention given to Charlottesville may strengthen it even more. Assuming the president wants to fight this movement—which for now, alas, is just an assumption—what should he do?