Strategies for the Multifront War against Radical Islamists

Virtually no corner of the world remains immune to the threat of radical Islamists. Africa, Asia, Europe, the two Americas -- in different ways, using different means, and operating under different guises, jihadists of various stripes have waged war against "infidels" (America, Israel, the West) and "apostates" (non-Islamist Muslims) around the globe. In some respects, the radicals are in ascendance. But in this still-emerging conflict, there is some heartening news. With welcome clarify, leaders around the world are beginning to refer to the global contest now underway as a battle against radical Islamism, not just an amorphous and ill-defined "war on terror."

Five years after the September 11 attacks, The Washington Institute convened its annual Weinberg Founders Conference to discuss the evolving nature of the threat that jihadists -- both Sunni and Shiite, state and nonstate -- pose to Western interests, the various theaters in which those threats are manifest, and the range of strategies at our disposal to address them. The summaries presented in these proceedings provide a compelling record of those important discussions. Downloadable in their entirety as a free PDF, the panels include remarks delivered by distinguished participants such as State Department counselor Philip Zelikow, Israeli Labor Party head Ephraim Sneh, and Lebanese parliamentarian Misbah al-Ahdab, as well as Uzi Dayan, Peter Galbraith, Martin Kramer, Mona Makram-Ebeid, Gary Samore, Mohammad Yaghi, and many others.