Marisa L. Porges states, "the attempted Christmas attack has inadvertently helped the United States on multiple national security fronts."

In this Wall Street Journal article, Reuel Marc Gerecht discusses how terrorists are demonstrating counterintelligence ability that the CIA may have underestimated.

In the New York Times Magazine, Peter Baker discusses the challenges that President Obama faces as the new administration fights the war on terror.

CFR fellows, Edward Alden and Steven Simon, discuss the Christmas day bomb plot and the U.S. government's response to terror threats.

Micah Zenko writes that a military strike on Yemen in response to the attempted attack on flight 253 would be a bad short-term solution.

President Obama's decision to transfer Guantanamo inmates to an Illinois prison could speed closure of the facility, but the move has raised both security and civil liberties concerns.

Ambassador Daniel Benjamin says that though President Obama has articulated a clear counterterrorism policy - to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaida and its allies - we need to confront the political, social, and economic conditions that our enemies exploit to win over the new recruits and those whose tacit support enables the militants to carry forward their plans.

Scott Shane examines the Pashtunistan region, and its implications for American foreign policy in the near future, commenting that "Mr. Obama's surge depends a lot on the hearts and minds of the Pashtuns - and who seems a winner."

An investigation by The Nation has found that members of an elite division of Blackwater are running a clandestine program to carry out assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives both inside and outside Pakistan, help run secret US military drone bombing campaigns and gather intelligence.

Roger Cohen raises questions about the U.S. government's expanding use of robotic warfare.

As the Obama administration assesses American troop numbers in Afghanistan, the senior U.S. Army general training Afghan security forces says the White House should also double the size of the Afghan army and police.

Leading Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir discusses the deteriorating security conditions in her country and expresses concerns over the past and continuing military operations.

Lydia Khalil analyzes the degree to which homegrown terrorism can be considered a real threat.

Amid the latest spate of attacks in Pakistan, furor over a U.S. aid package shows continuing distrust between Washington and Islamabad. CFR's Daniel Markey and Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation say Pakistan poses a difficult challenge.

Sheikh Ali Goma'a, Grand Mufti of Egypt, champions moderate Islam, condemns religious violence, and addresses the challenges facing the United States in bettering its relationship with Islam.

The administration's counterterrorism policy.

New York City has developed a sophisticated local and global counterterrorism program since the 9/11 attacks, writes CFR's Lydia Khalil. Now the NYPD must determine from where the next terrorism threat will likely emerge and how best to deploy its resources to address it.

CFR Fellow Micah Zenko says U.S. air strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas are ineffective as a counterinsurgency tool. He recommends that Washington create oversight mechanisms for its covert operations in the tribal areas and develop a comprehensive national strategy toward Pakistan.

CFR's Steven Simon says President Obama has asserted a new counterterrorism approach that balances aggressiveness on some fronts with a milder set of interrogation and detention policies.

Lydia Khalil reviews NBC's "The Wanted."