About

 

Assaf Moghadam is the Dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC), Israel. He also holds fellowships at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (CTC) and the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School (CNS). He is also a Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and a research affiliate at the Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland. Prof. Moghadam has taught at the Department of Political Science at Columbia University and the Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy at West Point and he held research fellowships at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, both at Harvard University. He is a contributing editor for the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. Prof. Moghadam’s research examines the dynamics within and between militant actors. He has authored or edited five books on terrorism and political violence, including Nexus of Global Jihad: Understanding Cooperation among Terrorist Actors (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017) and the award-winning The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). Two of his books are included in a list of the top 150 books on terrorism published in the journal Perspectives on Terrorism. His articles have appeared in journals such as International Security, Security Studies, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, as well as in various media and policy outlets including the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, and Orbis. He has lectured and consulted widely before audiences in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Prof. Moghadam holds a Ph.D. in international relations and an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy (MALD), both from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a B.A. in political science from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is married with three children.

 Biography

Assaf Moghadam is Associate Professor and the Dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC), Israel, which he joined in 2011. He is also a fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (CTC); a fellow at the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School (CNS); a Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT); and a research affiliate at the Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland. Prof. Moghadam has taught at Columbia University, the United States Military Academy, and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, in addition to the IDC Herzliya.

Prof. Moghadam previously served as Director of Terrorism Studies and Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and as Director of Academic Affairs at the ICT. He held pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, both at Harvard University.

Prof. Moghadam’s research examines the dynamics within and between militant actors, with a particular interest in terrorism, the global jihad movement, insurgency, and sponsor-proxy relationships. His latest book, Nexus of Global Jihad: Understanding Cooperation among Terrorist Actors (Columbia University Press, 2017, paperback edition 2019), examines empirical and conceptual aspects of cooperative behavior between terrorist entities. He is also the author of The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), which won a Choice award for Outstanding Academic Title, and of The Roots of Terrorism (Chelsea House, 2006). He is the co-editor (with Brian Fishman) of Fault Lines in Global Jihad: Organizational, Strategic, and Ideological Fissures (Routledge, 2011), and the editor of Militancy and Political Violence in Shiism: Trends and Patterns (Routledge, 2012). Two of his books are listed among the top 150 books on terrorism in the journal Perspectives on Terrorism.  

Prof. Moghadam has lectured widely on terrorism issues before audiences in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East and has consulted various government agencies on issues related to terrorism and political violence. He is a Contributing Editor for the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, and an editorial board member of Democracy and Security, and Perspectives on Terrorism. He was a founding member of the editorial board of the CTC Sentinel, and he serves on the advisory board of the International Counter-Terrorism Youth Network (ICTYN).

Prof. Moghadam’s articles have appeared in International Security, Security Studies, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, Perspectives on Terrorism, and Democracy and Security. His writings have also appeared in other outlets including the Washington Post, Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, Orbis, CTC Sentinel, War on the Rocks, Lawfare, Political Violence @ a Glance, and Die Zeit, among others. He has authored various chapters in edited volumes, and his book reviews have appeared in Perspectives in Politics, Political Science Quarterly, and Transcultural Psychiatry, among other journals.

Prof. Moghadam holds a Ph.D. in international relations and an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy (MALD), both from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a B.A. in political science from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is married with three children.

 

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