‘Three Types of Terror Groups’

The CT strategy document demarcates ‘three types of terror groups’—narco-terrorists and transnational gangs; legacy Islamist terrorists; and violent left-wing extremists consisting of anarchists and anti-fascists. This tripartite threat formulation is the key feature of the document. The strategy mentions that ‘terrorist threat has changed’,[2] and the US now confronts ‘new combination and categories of violent actors’[3] that have rendered the traditional CT measures obsolete or insufficient. The three major functions of the new CT strategy are to identify various threat actors and plots before they can carry out attacks, to take down their arms, funding, and recruiting mechanisms and support, and ultimately to uproot and destroy the entire established networks and threat groups.

The ordering of components in the strategy is itself revealing, signalling the relative priorities assigned to each threat category.  The first is ‘neutralisation of hemispheric terror threats’[4]  by offensive action against cartel networks and stripping them of their operational capabilities. This aligns with Trump’s administration’s January 2025 categorisation of several gangs and cartels as ‘Foreign Terrorist Organisations’ (FTOs).[5]

The second priority is accorded to the targeting and destruction of ‘top five Islamist terror groups’[6] which are considered capable of conducting external operations against the US. This list includes the Islamic State, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS-Khorasan and al-Qaeda and their aggressive sub-groups like AQAP. The strategy also calls for extending FTO designation to organisations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Third, national counterterrorism resources are to be directed towards identifying and dismantling ‘violent secular political groups’, with Antifa explicitly named.

Lastly, the strategy puts the non-state acquisition and use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in a distinct category termed a ‘no-fail’ mission. In this context, the administration has re-classified fentanyl and its precursor chemicals as WMD, one of the most consequential steps taken to curb the fentanyl crisis within the United States.

This hierarchy is reinforced in the strategy’s regional sections as well. The first........

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