Overview

After two decades and trillions of dollars, the United States' fight against terrorism has achieved mixed results. Despite the vast resources and attention expended since 9/11, terrorism has increased in many societies that have been caught up in the war on terror. Why have U.S. policies been unable to stem the tide of violence? Harrison Akins reveals how the war on terror has led to the unintended consequence of increasing domestic terrorism in U.S. partner states. He examines the results of U.S.-backed counterterrorism operations that targeted al Qaeda in peripheral regions of partner states, over which their central governments held little control. These operations often provoked a violent backlash from local terrorist groups, leading to a spike in retaliatory attacks against partner states. Senior U.S. officials frequently failed to grasp the implications of the historical conflict between central governments and the targeted peripheries. Instead, they exerted greater pressure on partner states to expand their counterterrorism efforts. This exacerbated the underlying conditions that drove the escalating attacks, trapping these governments in a deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence with local terrorist groups. This process, Akins demonstrates, accounts for the lion's share of the al Qaeda network's global terrorist activity since 2001. Drawing on extensive primary sources-including newly declassified documents, dozens of in-depth interviews with leading government officials in the United States and abroad, and statistical analysis-The Terrorism Trap is a groundbreaking analysis of why counterterrorism has backfired.

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Akins addresses the important and little understood interaction between relatively weak postcolonial states and the US military. He demonstrates how attempts to impose military solutions upon the periphery of these relatively weak postcolonial states with American help, led to an evolving pattern of escalating domestic terror and counter-terror violence. -- David Martin Jones, co-author of <i>The Political Impossibility of Modern Counter-Insurgency</i> The Terrorism Trap presents a brilliant and original thesis for American foreign policy. To succeed in its mission, America needs to understand its partner states in Asia and Africa. A top-notch field researcher and high-level political scientist, the author presents us a must-read contribution to the literature. It should be on the reading list of the Secretary of State. -- Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, American University A brilliant, yet painful, reminder of the Law of Unintended Consequences. In The Terrorism Trap, Harrison Akins uses fascinating case studies supported by indisputable data to argue compellingly that well-intentioned, sometimes heroic, efforts to combat terrorism in the world's ungoverned spaces actually make the problem worse. The threats won't disappear, so understanding the challenge and finding a way ahead is more important than ever. -- General Stanley McChrystal, CEO and Chairman of McChrystal Group

Akins addresses the important and little understood interaction between relatively weak postcolonial states and the US military. He demonstrates how attempts to impose military solutions upon the periphery of these relatively weak postcolonial states with American help, led to an evolving pattern of escalating domestic terror and counter-terror violence. -- David Martin Jones, co-author of <i>The Political Impossibility of Modern Counter-Insurgency</i> The Terrorism Trap presents a brilliant and original thesis for American foreign policy. To succeed in its mission, America needs to understand its partner states in Asia and Africa. A top-notch field researcher and high-level political scientist, the author presents us a must-read contribution to the literature. It should be on the reading list of the Secretary of State. -- Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, American University

Akins addresses the important and little understood interaction between relatively weak postcolonial states and the US military. He demonstrates how attempts to impose military solutions upon the periphery of these relatively weak postcolonial states with American help, led to an evolving pattern of escalating domestic terror and counter-terror violence. -- David Martin Jones, co-author of <i>The Political Impossibility of Modern Counter-Insurgency</i>

Author Information

Harrison Akins is a political scientist and writer based in Washington, DC, who holds a PhD from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. For more than a decade, he has been researching, writing, and advising on conflict, development, South Asian politics, and U.S. foreign policy from several positions within both academia and the U.S. government.

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