Trump’s Counterterrorism Strategy Is a Relief
It prioritizes partnerships around the world while leaving out some of the president’s more politically charged ideas.
Twenty-one months after being elected president, Donald Trump finally issued a “National Strategy for Counterterrorism” on Thursday. It’s the U.S. government’s first overarching public counterterrorism strategy since President Obama’s in 2011, which was preceded by George W. Bush’s in 2006. (I worked as the senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council from 2015 to 2017, in addition to other national-security advisory roles in the Obama administration.) Most notable about the document is one key inclusion—a continuing emphasis on foreign partnerships—and a whole set of exclusions, such as Trump’s travel
