Transnational Threats Project

The Transnational Threats Project assesses the nature and impact of terror, insurgent, and criminal networks through targeted field work and an expansive network of specialists.

Terror, insurgent, and criminal networks are the focus of the Transnational Threats Project. TNT assesses the nature and impact of these threats through targeted field work and an extensive network of specialists from government, academia, NGOs, and the private sector. TNT’s work is highly valued by intelligence analysts, policymakers, and leaders seeking to understand, prevent, and disrupt transnational threats.

Transnational terrorism and insurgent groups will undergo continued, perhaps accelerated changes in the next few years. Meanwhile, international criminal organizations remain an intractable problem. Their trade in narcotics, weapons, and people often blends with terror and insurgent group activity. This places a premium on understanding cross-border threats that challenge states and policymakers still dominated by conventional thinking.

Though the future could witness a diminished “al Qaeda central,” in its place may be a widespread, networked “hybrid” threat more elusive than what we now confront. The United States and its allies need to plan for this evolution in order to get out in front of it strategically and contain its lethality and global reach.

Organizing and tapping the world’s top subject matter experts to assist in this endeavor has been a central aim of TNT since 2004. This work is carried out through Trusted Information Networks (TINs) which to date have focused on transitional threats in Europe and Southeast Asia.

The Afghan Resupply Task Force, roundtables, and the TNT monthly newsletter are additional components of the TNT Project. The TNT briefings and roundtables cover terrorism, emerging threats, narcotics trafficking, and radicalization.

National and international media frequently seek comment from TNT staff on these subjects. TNT also briefs dozens of ranking intelligence, law enforcement, and other government officials, as well as leading academic and NGO leaders from more than 50 nations who visit CSIS every year.

Prize-winning journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave and his deputy Tom Sanderson lead TNT and are frequent contributors to national and international media. David Gordon is TNT’s program coordinator and research assistant. The program also benefits from the advice of Judge William H. Webster. The former CIA and FBI director chairs a high-level TNT steering committee of past ranking intelligence, law enforcement, public sector, and private sector leaders. Advisers to the TNT project include John MacGaffin, former associate deputy director for operations at the CIA and former senior adviser to the director of the FBI; Juan Zarate, former deputy national security adviser for combatting Terrorism; and Jeff Jonas, distinguished engineer and chief scientist of IBM’s Entity Analytic Solutions.

Northern Distribution Network (NDN)
As the U.S. presence in Afghanistan increases, its demand for non-military supplies in 2010-2011 will be 200-300% more than the 2008 baseline. To accommodate this increase and address ongoing concerns with Pakistani supply lines, U.S. planners have opened the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), a series of commercially-based logistical arrangements connecting Baltic and Caspian ports with Afghanistan via Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.
Open Source, Trusted Information Network for Counterterrorism
The Trusted Information Network (TIN) project seeks to improve the understanding of transnational terrorism via outreach to nongovernment expertise.
Transnational Threats Project Past Initiatives
From examinations of information sharing to public-private partnerships, TNT’s past initiatives cover a broad spectrum of issues relevant to the struggle against transnational threats.
Transnational Threats Project Past Task Forces
In recognition of the complexity of organized crime and terrorism, TNT has complimented its own in-house expertise by drawing on more than 150 experts to examine significant aspects of these threats through nine task forces.