Remember "Islamic Terrorism"? It seems the term itself has all but disappeared. No, the Islamist terror is alive and well, but the mental image of it has ceased to serve as the West's primary stand-in for the "enemy", a role it occupied from the late 1990s through the late 2010s.

When the Soviet Union dissolved itself, the US was left without a real adversary. The best Americans could come up with was "the End of History". The US had, in fact, entered an era of extraordinary economic, military, and cultural dominance. But everyone needs a rival, and there simply wasn't one.

Radical Islam was hardly the most natural enemy for the United States to rally against. Just a decade earlier, Americans had poured billions of dollars and weapons into supporting the Afghan mujahideen in order to bleed the Soviet Union. The idea that some of those same forces would eventually emerge as America's principal post-Cold War enemy would have seemed almost absurd at the time. Al-Qaeda grew out of that world, from battle-hardened veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war. Subsequently, the American media was infamous for portraying Chechen terrorists as "freedom fighters", and NATO had no scruples about bombing Belgrade in support of the Muslim Kosovars. Prior to 9/11, Muslim insurgents were more a tool than a principal enemy. That is, until Al-Qaeda turned against its former patron. First came the embassy bombings, then the USS Cole, and then 9/11.

The new unifying enemy had appeared and would occupy that niche for two decades. Conveniently, this was an enemy that America had helped create, at least in part. What had once been presented as heroic resistance to the Soviet Union was now seen as barbaric and uniquely evil terrorism. More importantly, this gave the American establishment enormous freedom to ramp up military spending, use military force at will, and limit freedoms at home. The failure of the Afghanistan War and the gruesome spectacle of the Iraq War. Then came the Arab Spring, the destruction of numerous secular Arab governments, and the bloody catastrophe that was Syria.

Syria was where it all became palpably absurd. America's stated goal was to defeat ISIS, much as Russia was doing, while simultaneously supporting various anti-Assad "moderate" jihadist groups. The constant cycle of supporting people who might become your enemies tomorrow, coupled with the rise of insane wokeism at home, has made it hard to entertain this fixation for too long.

Then ISIS was defeated just enough for "Islamic Terrorism" to simply vanish from the headlines, replaced first by Covid and then by the war in Ukraine. Not because the threat disappeared. It increasingly moved into Africa and remains extremely active there, while attacks still happen in Russia and Europe, with the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack being one of the most vile recent examples. But nobody seems to care anymore, with Al-Julani being famously elevated from an Al-Qaeda field commander to a respectable partner. The political importance assigned to it disappeared much faster than the threat itself.

Instead, Russia returned to its designated position as the main villain of the West. For Europe this particular arrangement comes naturally. Russia is waging a "hybrid war", you see, and is behind the mysterious explosions, drone sightings, and dumpster fires all over Brno and Gdansk. Russia, unlike an abstract "Islamic terrorism", is a very tangible entity, and therefore much easier to attack, sanction, and blame. America is somewhat less committed to the bit, even having played a key role in the creation of the Ukraine crisis in the first place.

In short, "Islamic terrorism" was effectively a project co-piloted by the West itself, providing enormous benefits to policymakers in the absence of other credible threats. It then abruptly disappeared as Russia, the same old enemy in new packaging, and China grew strong enough to become the West's next designated enemies.

"Islamic terrorism" had a good run, back into the toy box it goes.