If this is right, then terrorist attacks should increase in a repressive regime whenever the political situation is not heading in a direction the extremists prefer, irrespective of economic incentives.
One of the features of the new Iraq is the porosity of its borders, not only with Kuwait, but Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey, and the explosion of smuggling: sheep and stolen oil to Kuwait, drugs from Iran, and guns and extremists from several directions.
One American official cautioned specifically against "leaning too far in the direction of Islamic extremist involvement," despite the apparent link between the stolen van and the recovered bomb.
He said the brothers had targeted the magazine while he, at the direction of the extremist group Islamic State, had killed the policewoman.
In late November, China announced that government forces had killed 28 "terrorists" who had carried out the attack under the direction of "foreign extremists".
The Bangladeshi government denies that Islamic State has a presence in the country, but officials acknowledge that its murky pool of homegrown militants could be taking direction from foreign extremists.
On Nov. 20, the government announced that security forces in Xinjiang had killed 28 "terrorists" from a group that carried out a deadly attack at a coal mine in September under the direction of "foreign extremists".
The Overton window represents a strategy of pushing the political centre in a desired ideological direction by introducing wildly extremist, unacceptable policy positions and hammering away at them until other ideas that once seemed extremist come to seem reasonable by comparison.
It is the kind of small step that heartens many Americans, even as it enrages a set of extremists angry about the country's direction.
Trump has fully embraced the party's approach to Israel, pushing it in a hard-line direction advocated by conservative extremists.
