Movement Memo | Understanding the 2026 U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy
Last week, the administration formally launched the 2026 U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy during the 25th anniversary year of 9/11, positioning it as a core pillar of U.S. national security policy and “America First” governance.
Today, Muslims for Just Futures (MJF) is releasing a new movement memo analyzing the strategy’s global and regional counterterrorism priorities, and what it signals for movements and struggles against militarism and state violence.
The memo argues that the strategy represents the culmination of decades of unchecked post-9/11 counterterrorism expansion that have normalized a permanent global counterterrorism regime. The Administration’s strategy claims previous Republican and Democratic approaches represented “bad counterterrorism” policies that didn't go far enough. The new strategy positions itself as the “good counterterrorism strategy” that will go further than all previous strategies, particularly in targeting Islam, migration, and domestic anti-American political movements.
The memo analyzes the strategy’s regional priorities across Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and examines how it consolidates foreign, regional, and domestic counterterrorism policy into a single integrated governing framework.
Our memo outlines key areas of concern that include:
Expanded use of FTO designations to blur distinctions between foreign and domestic movements. FTO designations of groups also give the administration military, intelligence, sanctions and financial tools to target any state government and non-state group that are deemed supporters across any geography;
Increased military operations, sanctions, and bombing campaigns across multiple regions under the guise of predictive counterterrorism defense, promising to continue bombings and multiple military campaigns from the Middle East to Latin America;
Deepening structural Islamophobia that frames Muslim-majority regions as incubators of terrorism, especially with a focus on the Middle East and Asia;
Expansion of a global alignment project pressuring governments and regions to mirror and partner with the U.S. in implementing counterterrorism policies.
We invite you to review our full memo.
Muslims for Just Futures is a national grassroots organization that builds power in Muslim communities through organizing, advocacy, and movement-building.
Please reach out to MuslimsforJustFutures@protonmail.com for more information.
