ISIS, Al-Qaeda Have Evolved in Last Decade, Still Pose Global Threat, Say Analysts

A decade after the coordinated massacres in Paris on November 13, 2015, analysts say ISIS and al-Qaeda have morphed from centrally directed networks into looser franchises and inspiration-based cells. Leadership decapitations and the loss of territorial sanctuaries in Syria and Iraq have reduced their capacity for large, externally directed strikes in Europe. Yet the threat has shifted rather than vanished, with homegrown attackers more common in the West even as the groups’ affiliates expand elsewhere.

Experts point to Africa—especially the Sahel and parts of West Africa—as today’s epicenter of jihadist activity, with active branches also operating in the Middle East and parts of Asia. The evolution has produced diffuse, persistent risk: localized insurgencies that destabilize fragile states, plus online propaganda aimed at spurring lone-wolf or small-cell violence abroad. While diminished from their peak, these movements continue to adapt to security pressure and political vacuums.

The assessment underscores a dual challenge: supporting partners battling entrenched insurgencies while protecting open societies from inspired attacks. Counterterrorism today is less about dismantling a single headquarters and more about blunting metastasized networks spread across multiple continents.

(TOI/VFI News)

“A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.” – Psalm 91:7