Kerry outlines broad strategy to fight extremism

DAVOS , Switzerland, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Secretary of State John Kerry outlined a long-term strategy for defeating terrorist extremism at the World Economic Forum on Friday.

In his Davos, Switzerland, address, Kerry referred to a "holistic" approach that includes accountable government leadership, and universal empowerment in political, economic and educational spheres. He told business and government leaders it would be necessary to raise funds to fight militant extremists the way international action combats disease and famine.

"This fight is not going to be decided on the battlefield. The outcome is going to be determined in classrooms, workplaces, houses of worship, community centers, urban street corners in the perceptions and thoughts of individuals and the ways in which those perceptions are created. We need to put resources into helping to build the enterprises that can counter these extremists and using many of those same mechanisms that we use to deal now with global challenges, like disease, famine, Ebola, AIDS, poverty. We need to start funneling more into the fight against violent extremism."

He added that coalitions, such as the one currently involved in battling the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, must be organized to maintain security in other places where extremism is taking hold, elsewhere than the Middle East, itemizing Yemen, North Africa, Somalia and Nigeria.

"We also have to strengthen Somalia, intensify our effort to defend violence in Nigeria, which I will go to in a couple of days, and strike at the tentacles of al-Qaeda in Yemen, the Maghreb (a reference to North Africa) and wherever else they appear," Kerry said, citing a February summit meeting in Washington as a forum to create a strategy to address the broad array of elements in his strategy.