The new US counter-terrorism strategy, approved by Donald Trump, assesses Europe as an “incubator for terrorist threats.”
The strategy is presented by Trump himself, and one of the chapters in the Regions section is devoted entirely to Europe. It begins with this paragraph:
European countries remain our main and long-term partners in the fight against terrorism. The world becomes safer when Europe is strong, but Europe itself is under serious threat and is becoming a target for terrorists and an incubator for terrorist threats.
The document goes on to say that terrorists are turning Europe into a “convenient environment for planning attacks against Europeans and Americans” by exploiting “weak European borders” and “dwindling counterterrorism resources.” The strategy states that terrorists use uncontrolled mass migration as a channel to penetrate into Europe.
The document’s authors point out that Europe still has a chance to change the situation if it “realizes the reality of the threat and begins to act.” It calls on European countries to urgently increase efforts in the fight against terrorism, as well as to “restore traditional principles of freedom of expression” and “openly discuss the problem of Islamism.”
In general, the strategy focuses on the Western Hemisphere. The priority in the document is given to neutralizing terrorist threats by suppressing the activities of drug gangs.
Russia was not specifically mentioned in the document.