friends
and allies around the world and ultimately, to create an international
environment inhospitable to terrorists and all those who support them.
To accomplish these tasks we will simultaneously act on four fronts.

The United States and its partners will _defeat_ terrorist
organizations of global reach by attacking their sanctuaries;
leadership; command, control, and communications; material support; and
finances. This approach will have a cascading effect across the larger
terrorist landscape, disrupting the terrorists' ability to plan and
operate. As a result, it will force these organizations to disperse and
then attempt to reconsolidate along regional lines to improve their
communications and cooperation.

As this dispersion and organizational degradation occurs, we will work
with regional partners to implement a coordinated effort to squeeze,
tighten, and isolate the terrorists. Once the regional campaign has
localized the threat, we will help states develop the military, law
enforcement, political, and financial tools necessary to finish the
task (_figure 3_). However, this campaign need not be sequential to be
effective; the cumulative effect across all geographic regions will
help achieve the results we seek.

We will _deny_ further sponsorship, support, and sanctuary to
terrorists by ensuring other states accept their responsibilities to
take action against these international threats within their sovereign
territory. UNSCR 1373 and the 12 UN counterterrorism conventions and
protocols establish high standards that we and our international
partners expect others to meet in deed as well as word.

Where states are willing and able, we will reinvigorate old
partnerships and forge new ones to combat terrorism and coordinate our
actions to ensure that they are mutually reinforcing and cumulative.

Where states are weak but willing, we will support them vigorously in
their efforts to build the institutions and capabilities needed to
exercise authority over all their territory and fight terrorism where
it exists.

Where states are reluctant, we will work with our partners to convince
them to change course and meet their international obligations.

Where states are unwilling, we will act decisively to counter the
threat they pose and, ultimately, to compel them to cease supporting
terrorism.

We will _diminish_ the underlying conditions that terrorist seek to
exploit by enlisting the international commun