Joint efforts needed to end terrorism

Unlike many traditional terrorist organizations, the IS is notoriously skilled at using the Internet to recruit young jihadists from across the world, including Europe. It is also known to recruit men and women and train them in Syria and Iraq to launch attacks in their home countries on their return.

Therefore, the IS' propaganda materials that preach hatred and instigate Muslims to launch attacks have to be removed from the Internet. But this is no easy task given the lack of legal agreements on how to fight terrorism in cyberspace and perceptual divergence on cyber supervision in the international community. Ideally, the Washington meeting should push for global consensus on such matters.

Confronted with the marauding expansion of the IS, all countries have to work together to find new and effective ways to first check its advance and then eliminate it. The "community intervention" program started in Minnesota is just one of the many ways to protect the youth from the influence of the IS. Under the program, an 18-year-old Somali American, arrested earlier for attempting to join the IS in Syria, was released and placed under community based supervision and education on Jan 27. Many see this as a big step in Washington's crackdown on extremism and its influence on American soil.

Communities have always played a vital role in the US' anti-terrorism strategy. Its 2011 National Security Strategy listed families, communities and other local organizations as the best media to defend extremism, and a similar proposal was floated by the Department of Justice last year.

Irrespective of how fruitful the Washington meeting will be, all the participants should realize that their loose control over transnational terrorists is the result of the short-sighted policies of appeasement they have adopted. Unanimous commitment to eliminating the root cause of terrorism has never been more important.

The author is a professor in the International Politics Department at the University of International Relations in Beijing.