Seven years after the 9/11 attacks, the war on terrorism continues, with no end in sight.

In a recent survey of Al Qaeda, The Economist called America's war on terror “inconclusive”. The terrorist threat, it said, will last many more years. It derives currently mostly from “ungoverned, undergoverned and ungovernable” areas of the Muslim world and the “virtual caliphate” of cyberspace.

Yet apart from a mention of “the chain of islands between Indonesia and the Philippines” in its list of poorly governed lands, the article barely touches on Southeast Asia — once trumpeted as the “second front in the war against terrorism”.

In fact, Southeast Asia has had important successes in the fight against terrorism. The threat has by no means been eliminated. But it has been reduced compared with its peak in 2001–2002. The networks of the main terrorist organization in Southeast Asia, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), have been virtually destroyed in Singapore and Malaysia. JI has also been weakened in Indonesia, its main base. The Philippines has had success against the terrorist-cum-bandit Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).

What accounts for these Southeast Asian successes? First, no country affected by terrorism is now in a state of denial, though Indonesia and Thailand were so in the first couple of years after 9/11. Since 2003–2004 all affected countries have taken the threat seriously.

Second, the region's security services — especially those of Malaysia and Singapore (notwithstanding Mas Selamat Kastari's escape) and the counter-terrorism units of the Indonesian national police — have been effective and professional. They have based their efforts on the effective use of intelligence, relying as far as possible on the police as the front-line force. In the southern Philippines where counter-insurgency operations require the use of military units, excessive use of force such as aerial bombings has been avoided.

Third, there has been intelligence cooperation among ASEAN countries as well as between them and the intelligence services of friendly powers such as the United States and Australia. Such cooperation has resulted in the capture of important terrorists, including Hambali, the operational head of JI, in Thailand in 2004. Leads provided by Singapore led to the recent arrests of JI elements near Palembang, Sumatra and the seizure of bombs and explosives by the Indonesian police.