Let me summarize this is simple words.

There's a lot at play here, not just "terrorism". Quite simply the post-colonial order is dying.

But whose "post-colonial order"? Quite simply the British & French post-colonial orders (that the US simply took over in the Middle East & much of Africa).

How does America deal with this? Conceptually a bit difficult - as it's closest allies are the 2 biggest colonial powers in history, but more than that - US will have a serious problem "thinking out of the British & French colonial box".

The great problem of the Cold War is this - it presented Washington with a binary world. So Washington was spared the inconvenience of deeply questioning the foundations of the post-colonial order established by UK and France.

Unfortunately, US no longer can afford that luxury. This is a more complex World, not simply a World where Washington defends Western interests (i.e. UK doesn't simply goad US to remove Mossadegh in Iran & France doesn't simply goad US to intervene in Iraq).

I'm African and in a few decades, we'll experience something similar - just like Sykes-Picot underpinned the colonial order in the Middle East and is being challenged. Globalization will force a challenge of the Berlin conference.

Britain and France will try to goad US to protect their spheres of influence in Africa, but will US see clearly enough to understand the complexities - or will they seek the easy way out - sticking with their "allies"?