ABSTRACT
Domestic terrorism in the United States has dramatically grown and fundamentally changed in the early 2020s as Catrina Doxsee suggests based on very recent data. Not surprisingly, the number of U.S. terrorist attacks and plots reached its highest levels since the least three decades. Whereas the Salafi-jihadist threat is in decrease, the violent far-right threat, particularly manifested by white supremacists and anti-government paramilitary networks, is more and more emerging. Terrorist acts committed by violent far-left extremists, such as anarchists and anti-fascist extremists are also modestly increasing. Doxsee claims that “efforts to counter domestic terrorism in the United States historically have been reactive, and the present is no exception”. In her data-sensible analysis she sheds a light on recent terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and their implications on counterterrorism. According to Doxsee, the “latest event that sparked renewed interest in expanding or improving domestic counter-terrorism efforts was the January 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol”. In her conclusion she offers “three recommendations for policymakers seeking to improve domestic counterterrorism efforts”. The first is a suggestion to “track and publicly release comprehensive data on domestic terrorist attacks, plots, and perpetrators”; secondly, “additional operational and training resources to support community interventions aimed at countering disinformation and radicalization” should be organized by policymakers and thirdly, “U.S. government should expand efforts to track and respond to violent extremist activity on digital platforms, including through coordination with technology companies related to content moderation and threat monitoring”.
