In July 2025, the UK government designated Palestine Action as a proscribed terrorist under the Terrorism Act 2000, making it a criminal offence to be a member of, or provide support to, the group. The decision followed...
On November 1, 2025, President Donald Trump threatened to end all U.S. assistance to Nigeria and — if he deemed it necessary — launch a military attack against insurgents in the country. As National...
I used to feel compelled to write something on 9/11. Some of this was just to participate in the discourse, some out of fear that failure to do so would mean moving on and forgetting. In 2009--back...
As someone who studies terrorism and religion, I approach each Christmas with dread due to the possibility of terrorist attacks around the holiday. A string of bombings hit churches in Indonesia and...
Once again, America is enduring the horrors of a mass shooting. This time a gunman attacked a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, opening fire before patrons grabbed his weapon and beat him with it. As of the time of writing (Monday morning) five are dead, and there are fears the number will increase. And once again, we are trying to make sense of this. Why did the shooter do this? What could have prevented this? Was this "random, senseless" violence or a targeted attack? Or was it something more, a terrorist attack against the country's LGBTQ population? What makes something terrorism?...
By now it’s clear that the attack on a Buffalo, NY supermarket was a case of right-wing terrorism. An individual targeted the store because many of its customers were black, and hoped to use the attack to make a broader political statement. Unfortunately, such attacks are growing in intensity, and these right-wing terrorists seem to be learning from each other. The next stage for this movement will depend on which historical model it follows: that of the 1800s anarchists or al-Qaeda. The growing threat from right-wing extremism The tragedy in Buffalo is only the latest in a wave of...
I excitedly read this recent tweet by Evan Perkoski of UConn, about a new article he co-authored that has been accepted in International Organization. Beyond being glad for a colleague's success, I was excited by the substance of the publication. They produced a new dataset on violent non-state actors and analyzed the conditions under which they cooperated, finding a major role for both group ideology and religious identity. That is huge! Well-crafted data published in one of the top journals in the sub-field that found that religion drives a crucially important security issue. This should...
One year ago today, a pro-Trump crowd attempted to shut down the certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory. America is still making sense of it. We're debating how it could have been prevented, whether it can happen again, how to prevent it happening again. But there's also a foundational debate about what to call the events of the day. I would argue 1/6/21 needs to be called a terrorist attack, for both conceptual and strategic reasons. And this need reveals the importance of the term "terrorism," despite its many detractors. What to call that day? There have been various labels for...
The twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has come and gone. We've reflected on what led to the attacks, its human toll, how well America handled it, and what impacts the US response has had on the world. I thought it was also worth asking what effects these attacks had on the sub-field of international relations, particularly mainstream security studies. The answer? Not much. As a result of these attacks, IR should have abandoned its secular, state-centric focus and explored these interconnecting elements of the twentieth century, revolutionizing the...
What was I thinking before I realized the world outside my campus was real? The foreign policy world is gearing up for the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 next week. There will be think pieces, roundtables and symposia galore. I will have a piece here on the Duck with some of my own reflections on what the anniversary means. But right now I'm thinking back to twenty years ago this week, and what I was doing at the time. That may matter as much as our reflections on 9/11 in trying to make sense of that horrible day. Blissfully waiting for the storm As I tell my students in the "about me" part...
Dear My Not-So-Fictional Family Members of Facebook, Greetings. We really haven’t hung out since that family reunion in 1996 but it’s been great to reconnect on Facebook. I love the pictures of your dog and it’s cool to see how much you now look like our grandfather. We have different political beliefs; I think we both know that now. I’ve turned into one of those Birkenstock-wearing liberals who likes science and “wastes my time” marching for rights that you think women already have. Your political beliefs are the polar opposite of that and today you’ve expressed how happy you are that...
[I've been debating whether to post this...it's a "transcript" of a talk I gave yesterday here at the University of Puget Sound. It's a bit basic as it was intended for a general audience of, primarily, undergraduate students. I wrote this up for friends who wanted to hear the talk but were unable to attend. It's a bit disorganized too. So be warned it's kind of ramble-y and general. Also, I haven't provided source information or links. If you want any, please ask!] It’s been a few days since the Paris bombings, and we have some more information about what happened, which has prompted me to...