Writing
Together with Steven Simon,Benjamin wrote The Age of Sacred Terror (Random House,2002),which documents the rise of al Qaeda and religiously motivated terrorism,as well as America's efforts to combat that threat. They review the history of Islamist political thought from ibn Taymiyya in the 13th century,to al-Wahhab (the 18th century founder of Wahabbism) down to bin Laden. The danger,as they see it,is that "al Qaeda's belief system cannot be separated neatly from Islamic teachings,because it has -- selectively and perniciously -- built on fundamental Islamic ideas and principles." The second half of the book outlines the West's response. Ellen Laipson,in her review of the book,praises the authors for their study and methodology. [10]
Benjamin and Simon would follow up The Age of Sacred Terror in 2005 with The Next Attack:The Globalization of Jihad (Hodder &Soughton (in Britain),2005),a book which received high-praise from Bill Clinton.
In the April 30,2006 edition of Time,Benjamin wrote a favorable profile of Pervez Musharraf,with the headline,"Why Pakistan's Leader May Be The West's Best Bet for Peace."
Counterterrorism, also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to combat or eliminate terrorism.
John Sloan Dickey was an American diplomat, scholar, and intellectual. Dickey served as the 12th President of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, from 1945 to 1970, and helped revitalize the Ivy League institution.
Paul R. Pillar is an academic and 28-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), serving from 1977 to 2005. He is now a non-resident senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies, as well as a nonresident senior fellow in the Brookings Institution's Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence. He was a visiting professor at Georgetown University from 2005 to 2012. He is a contributor to The National Interest.
Peter Lampert Bergen is a British and American-based United States journalist, author, and producer who is CNN's national security analyst, a vice president at New America, a professor at Arizona State University, and the host of the Audible podcast In the Room with Peter Bergen.
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998. More than 220 people were killed in nearly simultaneous truck bomb explosions in two East African cities, one at the United States Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and the other at the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
Gideon Rose is a former editor of Foreign Affairs and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as associate director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 under the Clinton Administration.
Michael A. Sheehan was an American author and former government official and military officer. He was a Distinguished Chair at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York and a terrorist analyst for NBC News.
Bruce O. Riedel is an American expert on U.S. security, South Asia, and counter-terrorism. He is currently a senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He also serves as a senior adviser at Albright Stonebridge Group.
Kenya–United States relations are bilateral relations between Kenya and the United States. Kenya and the United States have long been close allies and have enjoyed cordial relations since Kenya's independence. Relations became even closer after Kenya's democratic transition of 2002 and subsequent improvements in human rights.
Bruce R. Hoffman is an American political analyst. He specializes in the study of terrorism, counter-terrorism, insurgency, and counter-insurgency. Hoffman serves as the Shelby Cullom and Kathryn W. Davis Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security on the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a professor at the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University, where he directs its Center for Jewish Civilization. In addition, he is the Professor Emeritus and Honorary Professor of Terrorism Studies at the University of St Andrews, and is the George H. Gilmore Senior Fellow at the U.S. Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center.
Robert M. "Bobby" Chesney is an American lawyer and the Dean of the University of Texas School of Law. He is the Charles I. Francis Professor in Law and was the associate dean for academic affairs before becoming the dean. Chesney teaches courses relating to U.S. national security and constitutional law. He is also the director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. Chesney addresses issues involving national security and law, including matters relating to military detention, the use of force, terrorism-related prosecutions, the role of the courts in national security affairs and the relationship between military and intelligence community activities. He is a co-founder and contributor along with Benjamin Wittes and Jack Goldsmith to the Lawfare Blog. He also co-hosts The National Security Law Podcast with fellow Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck.
Steven Simon is a former United States National Security Council senior director for the Middle East and North Africa. He also previously served as the Executive Director IISS-US and Corresponding Director IISS-Middle East and as a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute based in Washington, D.C. He was Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was a Spring 2008 Berlin Prize Fellow. Steven Simon is now a visiting professor at Colby College in Maine.
Jarret Brachman is an American terrorism expert, the author of Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice and a consultant to several government agencies about terrorism.
Jessica Eve Stern is an American scholar and academic on terrorism. Stern serves as a research professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Earlier she had been a lecturer at Harvard University. She serves on the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law. In 2001, she was featured in Time magazine's series on Innovators. In 2009, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her work on trauma and violence. Her book ISIS: The State of Terror (2015), was co-authored with J.M. Berger.
Richard Martin Donne Barrett CMG OBE is a former British diplomat and intelligence officer now involved in countering violent extremism. Barrett is a recognised global expert on terrorism who frequently appears as a panellist in related conferences and whose commentary is regularly featured in the press.
Rommel C. Banlaoi is a Filipino political scientist, security analyst, an international studies expert, counterterrorism scholar, and a sinologist. He was nominated and designated as a Deputy National Security Adviser with the rank of Undersecretary in July 2022 to lead in the transition process at the National Security Council Secretariat. But he has returned to his work as an independent scholar and a non-government subject matter expert on geopolitics, peace and security studies; counterterrorism research; and, China studies. He is a celebrity professor and policy influencer known for his scholarly works on international terrorism, South China disputes, foreign affairs and geopolitical issues. He is the Chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research (PIPVTR) and President of the Philippine Society for International Security Studies (PSISS), both academic and non-governmental organizations.
James J. F. Forest is an American author and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Daniel L. Byman is one of the world's leading researchers on terrorism, Counterterrorism and the Middle East. Dr. Byman is a professor in Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service and Director of Georgetown's Security Studies Program He is a former Vice-Dean of the school.
An End to al-Qaeda: Destroying Bin Laden's Jihad and Restoring America's Honor is a non-fiction book about counterterrorism strategies towards al-Qaeda, written by U.S. Navy retired cryptology analyst Malcolm Nance. The book describes how the September 11 attacks changed the traditional Muslim community around the globe. Nance criticizes the approach of the George W. Bush administration, including the verbiage and public presentations used in the War on Terror. The author argues al-Qaeda is not part of Islam but is instead a dangerous religious cult. Nance writes the United States should commit to better education with a public relations campaign to encourage traditional believers in Islam around the world to denounce al-Qaeda.
Kenneth Spencer Yalowitz is an American retired diplomat. A Foreign Service Officer, he twice served as a U.S. Ambassador and is a Wilson Center Global Fellow.
