ABSTRACT
Assessing the efficacy of several military strategies for America’s continued counterterrorism efforts abroad at the beginning of the Trump administration, political scientists Peter D. Feaver and Hal Brands noted, “The tragedy of the United States’ war on terrorism is that it has no clean solution.” To fight a real war in the context of terrorism and counterterrorism, the enemy must be in control of a nation-state or parts thereof. Liberal democracies have well-developed legislation, systems, and structures to deal with crime; consequently, the criminal justice system should be at the heart of their counterterrorism efforts. Besides hard power, namely military and economic measures, there are also less drastic options available in response to specific terrorist incidents and terrorism threats in general. In assessing the utility of soft power, one needs to distinguish between state sponsors and terrorist groups or networks.
