From Al-Qaeda to lone attacks and new technologies: how terrorism has evolved since 9/11

Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the terrorist threat no longer takes the same form as it did then.

The danger, which once came mainly from large organizations with clearly defined leadership, training camps and well-organized structures, has increasingly shifted toward individuals radicalized online, groups without a single center and modern technologies.

According to RFE/RL, a significant example of this change is the case of Farhad N., a 25-year-old Afghan whose full identity has not been made public.

When Al-Qaeda militants, under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, hijacked passenger planes and crashed two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, he was only a few months old.

The attacks killed thousands of people and marked the beginning of a new era in the fight against terrorism. A quarter of a century later, Farhad N. was sentenced to life in prison in Germany after driving a vehicle into a crowd in Munich.

Two people were killed, while dozens of others were injured. Investigations found no direct links between the 25-year-old and any terrorist organization. He had been radicalized online and carried out the attack on his own initiative.

This case reflects one of the main characteristics of contemporary terrorism: attacks that were once planned and carried out by large organizations can now be undertaken by individuals.

After 9/11, the United States toppled the Taliban regime and severely weakened Al-Qaeda’s leadership. However, the organization did not disappear.

It changed the way it operated, moving from a leader-centered structure to a more decentralized network, with branches located in different parts of the world.

“In the past, we would have called them lone actors or ‘lone wolves.’ This is the future,” says a former American diplomat with many years of experience in the fight against terrorism.

He warns about the impact of online propaganda and emphasizes that drones, artificial intelligence and social media, technologies that did not exist 25 years ago, are creating an entirely new and more dangerous environment today.