What is the primary focus of the Shabtai Shavit World Summit on Counter-Terrorism 2026?

The summit aims to address evolving challenges in counter-terrorism and foster international cooperation among global leaders and experts, held in Herzliya.

Shabtai Shavit World Summit on Counter-Terrorism 2026

Name: Shabtai Shavit World Summit on Counter-Terrorism 2026
Start: 2026-10-05T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-10-08T00:00:00Z
Location: Herzliya

Oct 5–8, 2026Herzliya, IsraelIn-person

Registration open

The Shabtai Shavit World Summit on Counter-Terrorism 2026 is an international gathering held in Herzliya, Israel. This summit serves as a critical forum for global leaders, policymakers, and experts to address the evolving challenges of terrorism and to foster international cooperation in developing effective counter-terrorism strategies. The event is designed to facilitate robust discussions and the exchange of best practices among participants from diverse backgrounds.

Committees & topics

Topics
Global Counter-Terrorism Architecture · International Security in an Era of Strategic Competition · Regional Instability and Spillover Conflicts · Technological Threats and the Weaponization of Emerging Tech · State-Sponsored Terrorism · Ideological Extremism and Radicalization · Geopolitical Shifts and the Changing World Order

Why it matters

The persistent and evolving nature of global terrorism necessitates continuous dialogue and collaboration among nations. This summit, hosted in ISR, a nation with significant experience in counter-terrorism, offers a unique platform for participants to engage with cutting-edge research, strategic insights, and practical methodologies. It is particularly relevant given the complex geopolitical landscape, where terrorist organizations often exploit regional instabilities and technological advancements.

The discussions at the summit are crucial for shaping future counter-terrorism policies and enhancing the collective capacity of states to prevent and respond to terrorist threats. By bringing together a wide array of perspectives, the event aims to identify innovative solutions and strengthen the international framework for combating terrorism. The insights shared here can directly influence national security strategies and international cooperative efforts, making it a pivotal event for those involved in global security.

How to prepare

Delegates preparing for the Shabtai Shavit World Summit on Counter-Terrorism 2026 should focus on understanding the multifaceted nature of contemporary terrorism. This includes familiarity with various forms of extremism, the role of technology in terrorist activities, and the socio-political factors that contribute to radicalization. A thorough review of current counter-terrorism policies and their effectiveness, both nationally and internationally, would be beneficial.

Consider exploring different national approaches to counter-terrorism, particularly those of countries like USA, GBR, and FRA, which have been significantly impacted by and involved in combating terrorism. Understanding the nuances of these approaches and their successes or failures will allow for more informed contributions to the summit's discussions. Additionally, delegates might benefit from reviewing lessons such as "Dynamic Analysis" and "Engagement Strategies" to better frame their contributions and understand the complexities of international security cooperation.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Israel

A leading nation in counter-terrorism, ISR emphasizes proactive security measures, intelligence gathering, and technological innovation.

Role in topic

As the host nation, ISR provides a unique operational context for discussions, drawing on its extensive experience in combating various forms of terrorism and developing sophisticated security protocols. Its perspective often highlights the necessity of robust defense mechanisms and intelligence sharing.

United States

The USA advocates for a comprehensive approach to counter-terrorism, combining military action, intelligence, law enforcement, and diplomatic efforts.

Role in topic

The USA plays a significant role in global counter-terrorism initiatives, often leading international coalitions and providing substantial resources for intelligence and operational support. Its perspective will likely focus on international cooperation, capacity building, and addressing root causes of extremism.

United Kingdom

The GBR focuses on preventing radicalization, disrupting terrorist plots, and protecting its citizens, often through a multi-agency approach.

Role in topic

The GBR contributes to the global discourse on counter-terrorism with its experience in managing both domestic and international threats. Its perspective often includes discussions on intelligence sharing, legislative frameworks, and community engagement to counter extremism.

France

FRA maintains a firm stance against terrorism, emphasizing strong law enforcement, intelligence, and international cooperation, particularly in the Sahel region.

Role in topic

FRA's perspective is shaped by its direct experience with significant terrorist attacks and its active involvement in counter-terrorism operations in Africa. It is likely to advocate for robust security measures, international partnerships, and addressing the financing of terrorism.

Egypt

EGY prioritizes national security and stability, employing strong measures to combat extremist groups within its borders and in the wider region.

Role in topic

EGY's geographical position and historical challenges with extremist groups make its perspective crucial. It often emphasizes the importance of regional cooperation, border security, and addressing ideological drivers of terrorism.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Global Counter-Terrorism Architecture

Modern counter-terrorism cooperation took shape after the September 11, 2001 attacks, when UN Security Council Resolution 1373 obligated all member states to criminalize terrorist financing, freeze assets, and share intelligence. The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, adopted by consensus in 2006 and reviewed biennially, established a four-pillar framework addressing conditions conducive to terrorism, prevention, capacity-building, and human rights. Subsequent resolutions, including 2178 (2014) on foreign terrorist fighters and 2396 (2017) on returnees, responded to the rise of ISIS and the unprecedented mobilization of fighters into Syria and Iraq. The territorial defeat of the ISIS caliphate in 2019 did not end the threat. Al-Qaeda affiliates and ISIS provinces have expanded across the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin, and parts of South Asia, while the Taliban's 2021 return to power in Afghanistan reopened debates over safe havens. Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the ensuing Gaza war reignited disputes over the definition of terrorism, proportionality, and the boundary between counter-terrorism and armed conflict. Today the field is fragmented: the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and CTED coordinate norms and capacity-building, but enforcement depends on states. Persistent disagreements over a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism — blocked for over two decades largely by disputes over national liberation movements and state forces — continue to limit a unified legal definition.

Key players

International Security in an Era of Strategic Competition

The post-Cold War security order, built around US primacy, expanding NATO, and arms-control treaties such as INF, CFE, and New START, has visibly eroded. Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine shattered the Helsinki Final Act's prohibition on the use of force to change borders in Europe. The INF Treaty collapsed in 2019, CFE was suspended, and New START is set to expire in February 2026 with no successor in sight, raising the prospect of an unconstrained nuclear competition between Washington and Moscow for the first time since 1972. Simultaneously, the Indo-Pacific has become the central theater of US–China strategic competition, with friction over Taiwan, the South China Sea, and emerging technologies. The Gaza war, Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, and the 2024–2025 direct exchanges between Israel and Iran have demonstrated how regional crises can escalate to interstate confrontation. Hybrid threats — cyber operations, sabotage of undersea cables, election interference, and weaponized migration — increasingly blur the line between war and peace. The UN Security Council has been largely paralyzed on Ukraine, Gaza, and Syria by competing P5 vetoes, pushing security debates into the General Assembly, NATO, the SCO, and regional bodies. The 2024 Pact for the Future reaffirmed multilateralism but offered limited concrete reform of the Council itself.

Key players

Regional Instability and Spillover Conflicts

Several interlocking regional crises are driving today's instability. In the Middle East, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the Gaza war have triggered confrontations involving Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi forces in Yemen, Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, and direct Israel–Iran missile exchanges. The fall of the Assad regime in December 2024 reshaped the Levant but left Syria fragmented among rival armed actors. In the Sahel, successive coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger between 2020 and 2023 ushered in juntas that expelled French and UN forces (MINUSMA withdrew in 2023) and turned to Russia's Africa Corps, even as JNIM and ISGS expand. Sudan's civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, ongoing since April 2023, has produced the world's largest displacement crisis, with famine conditions declared in parts of Darfur. In South Asia, the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan has not stemmed ISIS-K activity, and India–Pakistan tensions resurged sharply in 2025. The Horn of Africa, the eastern DRC, and Myanmar add further pressure on already strained humanitarian and peacekeeping systems. These conflicts share common features: weakened state institutions, transnational armed groups, climate stress, and outside-power competition for influence. Spillover — refugees, arms flows, and ideological diffusion — increasingly turns localized wars into regional and global security concerns.

Key players

Technological Threats and the Weaponization of Emerging Tech

Technology has become both a vector and a target of terrorism and conflict. Encrypted messaging, livestreaming platforms, and algorithmic amplification have enabled groups from ISIS to white-supremacist networks to recruit, raise funds in cryptocurrency, and broadcast attacks — exemplified by the 2019 Christchurch shootings. The Christchurch Call and the GIFCT have produced voluntary industry frameworks, but enforcement is uneven and free-expression concerns remain contested. Drones have proven transformative: commercial quadcopters were weaponized by ISIS in Mosul, used by the Houthis against Saudi oil infrastructure in 2019, deployed extensively in the Ukraine war, and used by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Cyber operations against critical infrastructure — Colonial Pipeline (2021), Viasat (2022), and hospital ransomware campaigns — have demonstrated systemic vulnerabilities. Generative AI is now lowering barriers to disinformation, deepfakes, and potentially CBRN-relevant knowledge, while autonomous weapons debates continue under the CCW Group of Governmental Experts without consensus on a binding instrument. The governance landscape is fragmented across the UN OEWG on ICT, the Budapest Convention, the 2024 UN Convention against Cybercrime, the EU AI Act, and various export-control regimes. States diverge sharply over sovereignty, content moderation, and the applicability of international humanitarian law to cyberspace.

Key players

State-Sponsored Terrorism

State sponsorship of terrorism — the provision of funding, training, weapons, intelligence, or sanctuary by governments to non-state armed groups — has been a persistent feature of international politics since the Cold War. The US State Sponsors of Terrorism list, established in 1979, currently designates Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Cuba, while the EU, UK, and other jurisdictions maintain parallel sanctions and proscription regimes. UN Security Council Resolution 1373 obliges all states to refrain from supporting terrorism, but enforcement remains politically selective. Iran is the most prominent contemporary case, with the IRGC Quds Force supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, and Iraqi and Syrian militias — a network exposed in the post-October 7 confrontations. Russia's use of the Wagner Group (rebranded Africa Corps after 2023) in Syria, Libya, Mali, the CAR, and Sudan has blurred the line between mercenary deployment and state-sponsored irregular warfare. Pakistan has long faced allegations of supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani Network, while disputes persist over the Taliban's hosting of al-Qaeda figures, underscored by the 2022 US strike on Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul. The core diplomatic challenge is definitional and evidentiary: distinguishing legitimate support for resistance or allied governments from sponsorship of terrorism, and securing UN-level consensus when major powers themselves are accused.

Key players

Ideological Extremism and Radicalization

Modern violent extremism spans a widening ideological spectrum. Jihadist movements rooted in Salafi-jihadist thought — al-Qaeda, ISIS and their affiliates — remain the most lethal in absolute terms, particularly across the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, which the 2024 Global Terrorism Index identifies as the new epicenter of jihadist violence. At the same time, racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE), including white-supremacist and neo-Nazi networks, has driven major attacks in Christchurch (2019), El Paso (2019), Halle (2019), and Buffalo (2022), and is increasingly transnational and online-organized. The drivers of radicalization are contested but typically include grievance narratives, identity crises, social-media ecosystems, and offline networks. The UN Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism (2015) emphasized addressing root causes, but states differ sharply on whether "P/CVE" should focus on ideology, socioeconomic conditions, or political grievances — and on whether the framework can be applied to non-Islamist extremism without politicization. Post-October 7, debates over antisemitism, Islamophobia, and incitement online have intensified, including under the Global Compact and at the Human Rights Council. Deradicalization and reintegration programs — from Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Naif Center to Denmark's Aarhus model and Indonesia's BNPT — show mixed results, and the status of foreign fighters and their families held in northeast Syria's al-Hol and Roj camps remains an unresolved international challenge.

Key players

Geopolitical Shifts and the Changing World Order

The unipolar moment that followed the Soviet collapse has given way to a more contested order. China's economic and military rise, Russia's open challenge to European borders, and the assertion by middle powers — India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Brazil, South Africa — of independent foreign policies have produced what many analysts term a "multi-aligned" world. The 2024 BRICS expansion to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE, alongside ongoing de-dollarization debates, signals an attempt to construct parallel institutions, even as members retain deep ties to Western markets. The Russia–Ukraine war has consolidated NATO (with Finland and Sweden joining in 2023–2024) but also deepened Russia's strategic partnerships with China, Iran, and North Korea, including reported DPRK troop deployments to Russia in 2024. In the Middle East, the 2020 Abraham Accords, the 2023 China-brokered Saudi–Iran rapprochement, and the post-October 7 realignments have repeatedly reshuffled regional alignments. US administrations' shifting postures on alliances, trade, and Ukraine have added uncertainty for partners in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. For counter-terrorism, these shifts matter because cooperation depends on baseline trust: intelligence sharing, sanctions enforcement, and joint operations all fray when great powers treat one another as primary adversaries. The risk is a return to Cold War–style instrumentalization of armed non-state actors as proxies.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for Shabtai Shavit World Summit on Counter-Terrorism 2026.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Comprehensive approach to security: Federal Council launches consultation on Switzerland's security policy strategy

Georgia Considers Position in New South Caucasus Transit Era - Jamestown

Pakistan-Linked Terror Network in Karnataka

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

Israel October 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

Shabtai Shavit World Summit on Counter-Terrorism 2026

Oct 5–8, 2026Herzliya, IsraelIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Global Counter-Terrorism Architecture · International Security in an Era of Strategic Competition · Regional Instability and Spillover Conflicts · Technological Threats and the Weaponization of Emerging Tech · State-Sponsored Terrorism · Ideological Extremism and Radicalization · Geopolitical Shifts and the Changing World Order

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Israel

A leading nation in counter-terrorism, ISR emphasizes proactive security measures, intelligence gathering, and technological innovation.

Role in topic

United States

The USA advocates for a comprehensive approach to counter-terrorism, combining military action, intelligence, law enforcement, and diplomatic efforts.

Role in topic

United Kingdom

The GBR focuses on preventing radicalization, disrupting terrorist plots, and protecting its citizens, often through a multi-agency approach.

Role in topic

France

FRA maintains a firm stance against terrorism, emphasizing strong law enforcement, intelligence, and international cooperation, particularly in the Sahel region.

Role in topic

Egypt

EGY prioritizes national security and stability, employing strong measures to combat extremist groups within its borders and in the wider region.

Role in topic