Despite our success protecting America’s homeland, extremism is spreading. Since 9/11, the number of terrorist attacks worldwide per year has increased fivefold. As long as this continues, the United States will remain vulnerable to terrorism while extremism contributes to chaos, conflict, and coercion that drains U.S. resources, weakens our allies, and provides openings for our competitors.

We need a new strategy to prevent extremism in fragile states. If we can mitigate the underlying conditions that allow extremism to emerge and spread in these states, the United States will be closer to breaking out of the costly cycle of perpetual crisis response, pushing back against the growing threat of extremism, and positioning itself effectively for strategic engagement with its competitors. Recent successes in the fight against the Islamic State make this a unique opportunity to focus on prevention. We must move from defeating terrorists to preventing extremism.

Established in response to a request from the U.S. Congress in 2017, the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States has developed a new strategy that represents the insightful and bipartisan foreign policy thinking of fifteen leading former policymakers, legislators, and other experts on how to empower fragile states to resist extremism on their own.

1. Adopt a shared policy framework for strategic prevention.

  • The United States should adopt a shared, government-wide framework for understanding the underlying conditions of, and solutions to, extremism.
  • The framework should recognize extremism as a context-specific, but inherently political and ideological, problem.
  • The framework should make the goal of U.S. policy to support and encourage leaders at all levels and in all segments of society—including women, youth, civil society, and the private sector—to listen and respond to the needs of their people.

2. Launch a Strategic Prevention Initiative.

  • Congress should authorize and fund, and the Executive Branch implement, a government-wide Initiative that aligns U.S. policy instruments, from foreign assistance to diplomatic engagement, in support of preventing extremism in the Sahel, Horn of Africa, and the Near East.
  • The Initiative should aim to promote long-term coordination between U.S. agencies working in fragile states to ensure efficacy and efficiency in the way our government funds projects that prevent extremism.
  • The Initiative should set out the roles and responsibilities of each U.S. agency for undertaking prevention, create new mechanisms for oversight and coordination, and grant policymakers flexible authorities to implement a preventative strategy that responds to evolving local needs.

3. Establish a new Partnership Development Fund to rally the international community behind country-led efforts to prevent the underlying conditions of extremism.

  • The United States neither can nor should prevent extremism alone. Our government should therefore lead the creation of a multilateral Fund to focus the international community’s attention on prevention and pool international donors’ resources behind a shared, coordinated, and sustained approach to addressing the underlying conditions of extremism in fragile states.
  • A Partnership Development Fund would provide an innovative and inclusive international coordination and financing mechanism to align programs and activities and raise and disburse funding for country-led, inclusive programs that address the underlying conditions of extremism.
  • A single, unified source of assistance might also entice fragile states that would otherwise look elsewhere for patronage.

The Task Force urges Congress and the administration to take up these recommendations and looks forward to working to implement them.

Related Publications

For Peace in Sahel, African and U.S. Experts Urge Focused Partnership

For Peace in Sahel, African and U.S. Experts Urge Focused Partnership

Thursday, February 22, 2024

By: Katia Cavigelli;  James Rupert

The past month has sharpened a decade-old question for U.S. and international policymakers: How best, in 2024, to help stabilize what is now the world’s largest single zone of military rule and violent conflicts — Africa’s Sahel region? After three military-ruled Sahel states withdrew from the West African regional community in January, those juntas last week proclaimed an alliance aimed at resisting international pressures, including those for their return to elected civilian rule. Former U.S. and African officials yesterday urged what they called vital changes in U.S. and allied policies to prevent a dangerous spread of the Sahel’s crises.

Type: Analysis

Fragility & Resilience

Riots in Papua New Guinea Are a Warning: Urgent Change is Needed

Riots in Papua New Guinea Are a Warning: Urgent Change is Needed

Thursday, January 11, 2024

By: Gordon Peake, Ph.D.

Riots erupted in Papua New Guinea's capital yesterday, laying bare the hollowness of governance that is failing to meet public needs, thus risking deeper violence and instability. U.S attention to the Pacific Islands' largest and most populous nation is increasing, partly because it is an arena for geopolitical competition with China. While Papua New Guinea's leaders are good at rolling out the red carpet for visiting partners, the state fails lamentably in providing basic services for its people. This week’s violence is a wake-up call for U.S and international policymakers to re-focus on this root of the country’s instability.

Type: Analysis

Democracy & GovernanceFragility & Resilience

From Ruins to Resilience: The Path Toward Recovery in Ukraine

From Ruins to Resilience: The Path Toward Recovery in Ukraine

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

By: Jaco Cilliers

Despite the destruction wrought by Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has continued to provide services to its people at an exemplary level throughout the war. This commendable resilience stems from significant investments and reforms made over the last 30 years. Notably, bolstering institutional capacity, the digitalization of public services, robust engagement with civil society, and a deeply rooted culture of voluntarism have all played crucial roles. Furthermore, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), where I serve as Ukraine’s resident representative, has been instrumental in building resilience across all strata of Ukrainian society.

Type: Analysis

Fragility & ResilienceReconciliation

In Earth’s Climate Crisis, Africa Demands a Fairer Sharing of Costs

In Earth’s Climate Crisis, Africa Demands a Fairer Sharing of Costs

Thursday, September 14, 2023

By: Tegan Blaine, Ph.D.;  Emmanuel Davalillo Hidalgo

Earth’s intensifying storms, heat, droughts and floods underscore that humanity is falling behind in its race against climate change. With global powers and institutions still debating how to transform economies and share the costs of surviving a destabilizing climate, the planet’s most vulnerable continent managed partial advances this month toward a regional consensus. The first-ever Africa Climate Summit amplified demands for a robust, fairer collective response to a warming planet — but fell short of forging a unified African position. Critically, it missed a chance to outline a strategy for dealing with the combined impacts of climate and violent conflicts.

Type: Analysis

EnvironmentFragility & Resilience

View All Publications


Related Projects

Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States

Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States

The bipartisan Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States will recommend a new approach for U.S. policy that harnesses existing U.S. programs and international partnerships to target the underlying causes of extremism and limit the ability of extremist groups to exploit fragile states.

Fragility & Resilience

View All