As we begin the new year, our intelligence and law enforcement communities must recalibrate their approach to counterterrorism. The fragmented and siloed methods of bucketing individual terrorist organizations have undermined our capacity to confront the broader, interconnected threat posed by a unified enemy—one that operates across these divisions and is willing to collaborate when necessary to target us.
To effectively combat this threat, we must implement several vital changes:
End the Bucketed Approach: Counterterrorism efforts should move beyond treating terrorist groups as isolated entities. Instead, the overarching strategy must acknowledge their collaboration under various banners, including what is now the Islamic Army—referred to by the terrorists as the Army of Imam Mahdi, the Islamic Council of the Alliance of Jihadi Organizations, and the United Islamic Council. A unified designation of the Islamic Army, in all its forms, as a terrorist organization is imperative to addressing the broader threat. This designation must include clear policy directives for freezing financial assets, enhancing intelligence-sharing among allied nations, and prioritizing military and counterterrorism operations to disrupt their command structures. Allocating resources to these efforts will ensure a proactive approach to counter this evolution.
Designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Organization and Qatar and Turkey as State Sponsors of Terrorism: Recognizing the Muslim Brotherhood’s role in fostering extremism, including its pursuit of an Islamic caliphate through a network of charitable organizations, political lobbying efforts, and alliances with militant groups, is long overdue. Similarly, Qatar’s and Turkey’s state sponsorship of terrorist groups—through weapons and funding—in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, and other locales must be acknowledged. These designations are vital to creating accountability and disrupting critical funding streams that sustain terrorist activities, which pose growing threats against U.S. interests and those of our allies.
Target Iran’s Broader Threat Network: While Iran is already designated a state sponsor of terrorism, we have a duplicitous policy that enables rather than enforces this designation. The Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) since 2019. However, our focus must expand beyond the Quds Force to also target the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO), which also poses a direct threat to the U.S. homeland. The IRGC-IO has grown significantly and has taken on a larger role in external operations. Moreover, we have failed to hold Iran accountable for its role in facilitating the October 7th, 2023 attacks in Israel and its growing coordination with both al-Qaeda and the Taliban government in Afghanistan. A more comprehensive strategy is needed to address these dynamics.
Shift Focus to Senior Leadership Globally: The current strategy of targeting low-level operatives, such as those in Syria, while ignoring senior Islamic State leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan, is shortsighted. A global strategy prioritizing the dismantling of first- and second-generation leadership networks is essential to crippling the operational capabilities of terrorist organizations and preventing their growing ambitions for an Islamic caliphate across the Middle East and North Africa.
End Support for ‘Moderate’ Terrorist Groups: The concept of "moderate" Islamists, such as the Taliban or Abu Mohammad al-Julani’s de facto Muslim Brotherhood-backed government in Syria, is a dangerous fallacy. These groups collaborate with others we label as enemies, forming a unified jihadist network. Continued support for such groups undermines international counterterrorism goals and must cease. The Taliban must finally be designated as a terrorist organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) designation must remain in place, and the Houthis should be redesignated as terrorists. This approach will also help prevent U.S. tax dollars from being used to fund terrorism.
The era of fragmented counterterrorism strategies must end. To protect both national and global security, we must confront this threat as a single, unified enemy. Addressing the broader threat requires focusing on coordinated plots, such as al-Qaeda’s planned U.S. Embassy attacks and joint efforts with the Islamic State to target Europe and the U.S. The urgency is clear, with the recent New Year’s terrorist attack in New Orleans and credible threats against multiple other locations and airlines already reaching our shores. Let 2025 be the year we discard the illusion that financial concessions will bring peace and instead fully commit to combating the full scope of the threat.