The new effort, dubbed the Global Counterterrorism Forum, will bring together "traditional allies, emerging powers and Muslim-majority countries," Clinton said in a speech in New York.
The effort brings together the US, Turkey and the European Union, joined by 27 countries including Algeria, Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and will be launched in the coming weeks on the sidelines of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meetings, according to a State Department statement released after Clinton's speech.
The forum appears to be an outgrowth of worries in the US, Turkey and elsewhere about the possibility of Islamist militants gaining footholds in countries like Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, which have swept aside repressive regimes. Clinton said that the US and Turkey will serve as founding co-chairs of the global forum.
The announcement comes just two days before the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
Late Thursday, US officials warned of "specific, credible but unconfirmed" terrorist threats around the anniversary events. On Friday morning, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the information about the threat was "not corroborated, not confirmed" and said no changes have been made in US President Barack Obama'splans for Sunday, when the US commemorates the terrorist strikes against New York and Washington, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
The new counterterrorism forum will have more teeth than the UN Counterterrorism panel that was set up after 9/11 to maintain a list of terrorist suspects supplied by individual countries and a watch over funding of al-Qaeda and other terrorist initiatives.
Instead, the forum will work directly with countries that are transitioning from authoritarian rule to democracy to "identify threats and weaknesses ... mobilize resources ... and help countries address terrorist threats within their own borders," Clinton said. The forum will help countries write counterterrorism legislation and train police.
Some of the authoritarian governments toppled in the Arab Spring had been supported by Washington in exchange for their collaboration against terrorists, which provoked criticism among supporters of reform within those countries.
In some cases, by necessity, we are working with nations with whom we have very little in common except for the desire to defeat al-Qaida," Clinton said.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country has taken a higher profile in the Middle East with its ongoing feud with Israel, is expected to make his first appearance at the UN General Assembly in the coming weeks.
Clinton spoke at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which lost nearly 70 students and alumni in the 9/11 attacks – and which in the aftermath of the events created a master’s program in the study of terrorism.
But her target audience appeared to be as much the U.S. Congress as anyone else, as the Republican-controlled House in particular has zeroed in on the State Department – and the kinds of “smart power” programs Clinton advocates – for billions of dollars in budget cuts.
Despite the cutbacks, Clinton on Friday announced the creation of a new Global Counterterrorism Forum, designed to enhance international counterterrorism cooperation by bringing together policymakers and experts in the field on a regular basis. The new forum, to be formally launched later this month at the United Nations, will initially be co-chaired by the U.S. and Turkey and include 30 other countries, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Algeria.
Noting that she is also upgrading the State Department’s counterterrorism office to a full bureau with its own assistant secretary of State, Clinton argued for increased integration of counterterrorism efforts into all aspects of U.S. diplomacy.
“We need to take a smart and strategic approach that recognizes that violent extremism is bound up with nearly all of today’s complex global problems,” she said. But she added, “We should appreciate that while working to resolve conflicts, reduce poverty, and improve governance is a valuable end in itself, it also advances the cause of counterterrorism and our own national security.”
To what degree that perspective is appreciated in the U.S. Congress remains unclear, however. Congress has already sliced about $8 billion off of President Obama’s requested State Department budget for the next fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, and House Republicans are proposing another $8 billion in cuts from State and foreign-aid funding.
“These cuts could be the most significant we’ve had in two decades, and they could have a devastating impact on the work that we do,” said Thomas Nides, deputy secretary of State for management and resources – the department’s chief operating officer – in a recent Washington speech.
Clinton, with the support of President Obama, has pressed hard for the resources to elevate the U.S.’s diplomatic role and to take back some of the burden of conflict prevention and post-conflict development and reconstruction that in recent years shifted to the Pentagon.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates was an outspoken advocate of boosting the civilian component of America’s international involvement. But after a 10 percent spike in spending on diplomacy and foreign aid in 2010, the number began falling again this year in the search for deficit-reduction cuts.
In her New York remarks, Clinton said the U.S. needed an “all-of-government” approach to battle terrorism that includes strikes on terrorist safe havens but extends to broad efforts to “diminish [a terror organization’s] appeal.”
But she emphasized that to be successful “we need effective international partners,” and that is where she said diplomacy is essential.
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