The End of the Global War on Terrorism

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

I've long disliked the phrase "global war on terrorism" because terrorism is a tactic, not an ideology or movement. Patrick Cronin of National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies elaborates over in the Op-Ed section today on the limitations of the "war on terrorism": 

After 9/11, the United States reduced its role in the world to one big idea: prosecuting the "Global War on Terrorism." Inevitably, terrorism, which is a tactic, not a philosophy, failed to provide a universal organizing principle for U.S. security. Now President-elect Barack Obama faces a wicked dilemma: how to recalibrate America's strategy to meet myriad complex challenges with diminished power.

Cronin goes on to identify eight separate challenges that Barack Obama will face after January 20. The whole thing is worth a read.

• Read more by Robert Schlesinger.
• Read more from the Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
• Read more about al Qaeda.
• Read more about national security.
• Read more about the Obama administration.
• Read more about terrorism.