As we enter 2009 and witness the first steps taken by President-elect Barack Obama and his administration, we thought it would be a good time to consider priorities.

The new President will have to tackle the economic crisis, which would be enough to keep everyone busy if that were the only challenge.

However, Barack Obama will be America's first new Commander-in-Chief since 9/11. In the aftermath, our nation's course fighting terror has been set only by the Bush administration.

We asked 2 men who've studied global terrorism for years what they think are the three biggest terrorism challenges facing the new administration.

Dr. Walid Phares is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington D.C. He is also a visiting fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy. Dr. Phares is the author of several books in English, French and Arabic. His most recent book is The Confrontation: Winning The War Against Future Jihad.

Douglas Farah is a consultant and freelance writer on terrorism finance and national security issues. He spent two decades as a foreign correspondent and investigative reporter for the Washington Post and other publications. Farah's the author of Blood From Stones: The Secret Financial Network Of Terror and Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible.