The State Department is revamping its floundering efforts to curb recruiting by the Islamic State and other terrorist groups, senior U.S. officials tell Foreign Policy, in response to growing dissatisfaction in the White House and Congress at existing attempts to stop the spread of the extremists’ ideology. The changes ordered by Secretary of State John Kerry, which have not previously been reported, shift significant power to a single bureau at the State Department tasked with coordinating all counter-extremism efforts. 

The Obama administration is overhauling its faltering efforts to combat the online propaganda of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups, U.S. officials said, reflecting rising White House frustration with largely ineffective efforts so far to cut into ISIS’s use of social media to draw recruits and incite attacks. Officials will create a counter­­terrorism task force, which will be based at the Department of Homeland Security but aims to enlist dozens of federal and local agencies.

Global youth are tackling the root causes of extremism. Over 70 youth leaders from around the globe met recently in New York, developed an action agenda, and shared it with President Obama at the Leaders’ Summit on Countering ISIL and Violent Extremism.

Today, we have a generation of young change-makers, including Muslim millennials, who are participating, positively, in addressing societal problems through nonviolent approaches to economic, social and political issues. We need to pay close attention to these voices.

Several archaeological sites have been attacked by Islamic State jihadis in Iraq and Syria. […] “I think the growing awareness that hard power will not be enough to defeat violent extremism is gaining ground. We need also soft power,” [Irina] Bokova said. “Culture should be part of our response to violent extremism”.