By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Jan 9 (Reuters) – A global organisation dedicated to preventing violent extremism said on Friday the U.S. had made a mistake in withdrawing its support while the risk of militant attacks surges in the Middle East and Africa’s Sahel.
The Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, which supports prevention programmes across dozens of countries with communities vulnerable to extremism – appeared on Wednesday in a White House memo announcing a U.S. pullout from 35 international agencies and 31 U.N. entities it said rejected U.S. interests.
Dr. Khalid Koser, head of the Geneva-based GCERF, said the decision came as a surprise and without explanation and that it reflected a deeper ideological shift under U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration away from multilateral prevention programmes toward security-focused counterterrorism measures.
“I think it’s a mistake to take out that fundamental piece of prevention. But I don’t think this administration believes in prevention,” Koser told Reuters.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Koser said risks of extremist violence were higher than at any point since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, citing as examples Afghanistan, the Sahel and camps in northeast Syria that hold tens of thousands of Islamic State family members – and a new generation at risk of radicalisation after the Gaza war.
“If you don’t work on prevention, then in 10 years time, you’re going to have lots of terrorists and lots of problems.”
Further underlining a U.S. repudiation of multilateral cooperation bodies under Trump’s “America First” policy, the White House also announced it was quitting the 30-nation Global Counterterrorism Forum.
The U.S. helped establish GCERF’s programme in northeast Syria that helps reintegrate families from former Islamic State militant circles. Koser said that while GCERF’s work would go on, it was losing a major player in the U.S., and that Washington’s decision was perplexing given GCERF’s agenda remained relevant to U.S. national interests.
With other international agencies scaling back following mass U.S. foreign aid cuts last year, GCERF said it now carries much of the global prevention burden alone, and that its $50 million annual budget had not risen to fill the growing gaps.
The 2025 Global Terrorism Index issued by the Institute for Economics and Peace showed the number of countries recording a terrorist attack increased from 58 to 66 in 2024, reversing nearly a decade of improvements.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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