Countering Terrorist Recruitment of Central Asian Foreign Workers

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Counterterrorism (CT) announces a Notice of Funding Opportunity for projects that counter ISIS-K’s online radicalization and recruitment of Central Asian foreign workers, particularly Tajik and Uzbek speakers. ISIS-K uses sophisticated, multilingual online propaganda—including on social media, gaming platforms, and via generative AI—to target vulnerable labor migrants from Central Asia working abroad. This recruitment pipeline creates a persistent risk that seemingly localized radicalization abroad can translate into attacks on U.S.