Why Over-Hyping the Jihadi Threat Is Bad Strategy

Why Over-Hyping the Jihadi Threat Is Bad Strategy
A vigil for the victims of last week’s attack outside Britain’s Parliament, London, U.K., March 29, 2017 (Rex Features via AP Images).

Last week, Khalid Masood, a British-born convert to Islam with a long criminal record, plowed a vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge and then stabbed a policeman before being killed by other police. Unsurprisingly, the self-styled Islamic State claimed responsibility. Whether the group actually had any involvement with Masood was irrelevant, since his religious-tinged violence fit its narrative.

As usual the America media was flooded with commentators asserting that the London attack once again demonstrated that violent jihadism is not a distortion of Islam but its true essence. The Westminster attack, they claimed, was just one more battle in a 1,000-year war as Muslims attempt to impose their beliefs on the West. “The war is real,” senior presidential adviser Sebastian Gorka said on Fox News. The comments by Gorka and others who share his perspective demonstrate the influence of what can be called “counter-jihadi extremism” in today’s political landscape.

While counter-jihadi extremism arose out of the 9/11 attacks, its intellectual and psychological roots lie in the Cold War. Before then, Americans mostly directed their attention and energy inward. External threats were seen as a distraction from the more serious work of building the nation. Everything changed with the advent of the Cold War. The Soviet threat demanded sustained mobilization, extensive defense spending and never-ending vigilance. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, a threat-focused strategic culture had been ingrained in the American collective psyche.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review