Max Boot discusses the use of covert action and secret warfare to fight terrorism and weapons proliferation.

John B. Bellinger III argues that the 112th Congress must update and clarify the legal authority for U.S. military and intelligence agencies to kill and detain terrorists who threaten the United States.

Micah Zenko examines the rationale behind the use of limited military force.

This RFE/ RL portrait of an Afghan village on the front lines of the fight to prevent the Taliban from spreading futher north in Konduz Province depicts the challenges that local opponents of the Taliban face.

Nine years after 9/11, the United States needs to combat the proliferating threat of Islamist radicalism abroad and anti-Muslim sentiment at home, says CFR's Richard A. Falkenrath.

Noah Feldman says the Obama administration faces both old and new legal challenges over U.S. defense strategies.

The Supreme Court's upholding of bans on "material support" for foreign terror groups, even involving legal activities, reflects a further post-9/11 broadening of federal powers, writes CFR's Matthew C. Waxman.

State policies permitting the use of targeted killings are often justified as a necessary and legitimate response to "terrorism" and "asymmetric warfare," but have had the very problematic effect of blurring and expanding the boundaries of the applicable legal frameworks. This report describes the new targeted killing policies and addresses the main legal issues that have arisen.

After months of harsh words, the White House's conciliatory tone during the Afghan president's visit was calibrated to encourage Karzai to behave more like a "wartime leader and less like an innocent bystander," says CFR's Stephen Biddle.

Lydia Khalil says that while terrorist attacks motivated by Islamic extremism receive large scale attention, the growing threat of homegrown radicalism tends to be "put on the back-burner."

Marisa L. Porges argues that detainee rehabilitation and transparency should be the focus at Guantánamo Bay prison.

Marisa L. Porges states that regardless of an increase in troops in Afghanistan, "without trust and understanding, counterinsurgency efforts are bound to fail."

Marisa L. Porges argues, "recent developments give the United States new opportunities to solve the Guantánamo problem in a way that has lasting, long-term benefits."

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.