Story highlights Lenarz: The Obama administration's departure from US exceptionalism and its strategy to let regional players take agency has badly backfired

If terrorists strike in countries engulfed in war or political turmoil, governments exploit the chaos to further their own strategic interests

Julie Lenarz is director of the Human Security Centre, an independent foreign policy think tank in London. The opinions in this article are those of the author.

(CNN) The first day of 2017 started with a horrific terrorist attack in Turkey. A gunman opened fire into a crowd of hundreds at one of Istanbul's most popular nightclubs, killing at least 39 people and injuring dozens more. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the massacre in an official statement released by its news agency Amaq.

Over recent months, Turkey has been hit by a wave of atrocities carried out by ISIS, the PKK, and breakaway factions of the outlawed Kurdish group.

The early Sunday attack is part of a global Islamist insurgency. It links the bloodshed in Istanbul to Berlin, Paris, Nice, Baghdad, Tel Aviv, Jakarta and other places where Islamic extremists try to impose their ideology by gunpoint.

However, there is another dynamic at play that is too often overlooked. If terrorists strike in countries engulfed in war or political turmoil, governments exploit the chaos to further their own strategic interests.

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Turkey is no exception. While Turkish civilians bear the brunt of mounting casualties, the government has turned every attack into an opportunity to cleanse the country of dissenting voices and advance its geopolitical ambitions. Following the attack on Reina nightclub, the Turkish government announced that it was extending the state of emergency declared after the failed coup d'état in July by three months to fight "terrorism."