Watch: Shashi Tharoor column: Terror attacks may have dropped, but the world is becoming ‘unevenly unsafe’

AI Summary

Global terrorism fatalities dropped by 28% in 2025, with fewer attacks worldwide, signaling some improvement in global security. However, disparities remain, and the world is becoming unevenly unsafe despite overall statistical gains.

At first glance, the macroeconomic indicators of global security offer a rare moment of statistical comfort. Recent reports suggest that global terrorism experienced a noteworthy decline in 2025, with fatalities around the world falling to 5,582 across 2,944 recorded incidents — representing a 28% drop in deaths and a 22% reduction in overall attacks. With as many as 81 nations registering measurable improvements in their domestic security landscapes, a superficial reading of the data might suggest that the international community is finally turning the tide against terror, or as the strategists prefer to call it, asymmetric warfare. Yet, there lies a far more unsettling reality: the world is not necessarily becoming safer; it is becoming unevenly unsafe.