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The Counterterrorism Lessons America Can't Afford to Forget
Emma Isabella Sage /

The Counterterrorism Lessons America Can’t Afford to Forget

The Trump administration’s moves to hollow out the intelligence community come amid a terrorist threat that increasingly targets a besieged Jewish community.
A person wrapped in an Israeli flag sits in a street at night surrounded by police vehicles with flashing lights and emergency personnel at a crime scene.
A bystander prays while wearing an Israeli flag near the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Tom Brenner For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

America may be done with its latest war in the Middle East, but in the minds of violent ideologues, the conflict is far from over. Terrorism does not distinguish between active conflict and a ceasefire, any more than it distinguishes between combatants and civilians. The danger is that foreign terrorist propaganda will combine with domestic grievances and ethnic hatred to trigger more attacks, while the government systematically weakens the institutions built to stop them.

Emma Isabella Sage is the co-founder of a research software startup, LIVINI, a research affiliate at the University of Glasgow, and a 2026 International Strategy Forum fellow. She writes on national security, geoeconomics, and emerging technology.

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