(TLP:CLEAR) CTC Sentinel November/December 2025: The Evolution of Counterterrorism and the Foreign Fighter Terrorist Threat
Created: Thursday, December 11, 2025 - 15:14
Categories: Physical Security, Research
Summary: The Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point published its “Sentinel” magazine for November/December 2025. This latest issue has multiple articles detailing the evolving nature of counterterrorism work. It also includes an article analyzing the foreign fighter terrorist threat and the risk to Western countries, among other reports.
Analyst Note: The issue’s cover article explores how risk is measured in the terrorism field, a task that is increasingly important in a resource-constrained environment. It “makes that case that if the United States is to remain serious about ‘risk-based’ counterterrorism, then terrorism risk assessment itself” should “be modernized conceptually, institutionally, and technologically to match the complexity and dynamism of the threat it seeks to understand.” The issue’s first analysis article examines the changing character of terrorism and U.S. counterterrorism today, evaluating how changes across the spread, structure, scale, and speed of terrorism are challenging the CT community in novel ways.
On the threat from foreign terrorist fighters, one article finds “current trends are worrisome but not alarming.” Still, the article argues that the threat of foreign fighters today is best understood as being in “stasis.” Indeed, foreign fighters continue to pursue external operations against the West. The author concludes: “If governments continue to … devote resources toward mitigating foreign fighter flows, the threat should remain in stasis.” Lastly, one article examines why some Islamic State affiliates have failed to thrive and are currently “repressed.” The author identifies potential causes for their decline—from military counter-responses to in-group conflict to an inability to gain traction among local populations.
Original Source: https://ctc.westpoint.edu/ctc-sentinel/
Additional Reading:
Related WaterISAC PIRs: 1, 2, & 4