By hastily withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan, US President Joe Biden has made a grave mistake, or so many argue. US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, for example, has called the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country an “even worse sequel to the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975.” That sequel, top US generals, conservatives, and even some liberals predict, will be characterized by the resurgence of transnational terrorism.

On July 13, the Balochistan province of Pakistan witnessed its worst ever terrorist attack, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a local election rally in Mastung district. Radical trends among youth in this region not only threaten the stability of Pakistan but also the future of Pakistan’s proclaimed economic savior – the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

President Donald Trump’s speech on August 21 lays out his new strategy for winning in Afghanistan.

As the Islamic State is collapsing in the Middle East, it needs wins elsewhere. Southeast Asia is Jihadi terror’s new battlefront. In order to contain the terror and sustain the Asian Century, new kind of cooperation is needed between the ASEAN, the U.S., China, and other major powers in the region and the Middle East.

While China barrels ahead building a new Silk Road for the 21st century, abandoned zones in the West reach a dead end.

Philippine President’s Rodrigo Duterte’s trip to China and Russia in half month, try to reduce the Southeast Asian country’s historical dependence on the United States. All of a sudden, however, the imperative of counterterrorism has brought the Duterte administration and its old allies, particularly Washington, back together.

One of the primary responsibilities as president is to ensure the security of the United States as well as stability on a global level. To serve as a “threat minimizer” if you will. However, in the last five months, Trump’s clear disregard for these responsibilities only serves to further validate concerns about his qualifications to lead.

Even after the city’s anticipated retaking, jihadist ideas advocated by ISIS carry certain ideological appeal, which will not go away because of the group’s military defeat in the region or the deaths of its leaders. The chaotic environments of Iraq and Syria offer a rich seedbed for continued instability, recruiting and violence.

Western overconfidence cost President Obama and US allies the chance to shape the resolution of the Syrian crisis. Turkey’s realignment with Russia and Iran on the issue is a game-changer, for no neighboring countries of Syria can replace the role of Turkey for the Western alliance.

The anticipated defeat of the Islamic State is not likely to mean calm in the region, since thousands of disaffected jihadist fighters will be scattered and looking for new opportunities to spread their ideology. Meanwhile, the newly energized Kurds – key players in the war against IS – will have political demands that will be difficult to satisfy, and may lead to new conflicts.