Five years after Donald Rumsfeld asked whether we are capturing and killing more terrorists than we are creating, the answer remains deeply uncertain and troubling. Global terrorist attacks are near historic highs, and this month Secretary Gates acknowledged that we cannot capture and kill our way to victory over the terrorists. We need a new approach to this fight, one that emphasizes stopping the breeding of future terrorists as much as eliminating the current ones.
Drawing on insights from his recent trips to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) will discuss a different framework for the "war on terror", a global counterinsurgency campaign that uses all elements of U.S. national power to address this threat more effectively.