Small Wars Journal

Trump Announces New U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy

Fri, 10/05/2018 - 12:53am

Trump Announces New U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy by Claudia Grisales - Stars & Stripes

President Donald Trump on Thursday approved a new national strategy for counterterrorism to protect the country against future terrorist attacks.

This is the first effort to update former President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism strategy released in 2011.

White House officials announced the plan, saying it was more comprehensive than previous approaches and focuses more on ideology-driven terrorists and incorporates new ways of battling related attacks.

“I am committed to protecting the United States and its interests abroad from the threat of terrorism,” Trump said Thursday in a White House statement. The strategy “will help protect our great nation, enhance our national security, and guide our continued effort to defeat terrorists and terrorist organizations that threaten the United States.”

In June 2011, then-White House official John Brennan announced a new Obama national strategy for counterterrorism, which focused on the U.S. campaign against al-Qaida and its affiliates.

On Thursday, National Security Adviser John Bolton called the new plan the “first robust counterterrorism strategy” since 2011. He also said the Trump administration has already taken steps to address terrorists who pose a threat to the United States…

Read on.