• A Short Introduction: The Involuntary Celibate Sub-Culture

    On 12 August 2021, Jake Davison embarked on a killing spree that resulted in the deaths of five people before taking his own life. Davison’s digital footprint on social media platforms contains numerous examples of misogynistic and anti-feminist attitudes, as well as references to the incel subculture. What are incels? And should we consider their ideology an extremist one related to the far-right?

  • More Violent Pro-ISIS, Extreme Right Content on Facebook & Instagram

    The Counter Extremism Project (CEP), which monitors the methods used by extremists to exploit the Internet and social media platforms to recruit followers and incite violence, reports that violent Islamist and extreme right content continues to be available on social media platforms.

  • Anthrax Attacks: 20 Years On

    Twenty years ago this month the United States experienced the scary anthrax letter attacks, which targeted major media outlets and members of Congress.

  • California Biosecurity Bill Safeguards Bioeconomy and Public Health

    Biosecurity experts say that California has the opportunity to reduce the risk posed by synthetic smallpox — and other novel biological threats —while keeping California’s bioeconomy innovative and strong.

  • Only Playing: Extreme-Right Gamification

    Extremist ideas inspire violence in a few, but for the many, participation increasingly resembles a consequence-free game separate from reality. “As technologies develop further, either in the form of Facebook’s metaverse or other forms of mixed or augmented reality that blur the line between online and offline, the potential disconnect between play and real-world violence is only going to grow more acute,” experts say.

  • Leader of Atomwaffen Extremist Group Convicted of Federal Felonies, Conspiracy

    The leader of the extremist Atomwaffen group was convicted in U.S. District Court in Seattle of five federal felonies for his conspiracy to send threatening posters to journalists and employees of the Anti-Defamation League.

  • Two Decades After 9/11: What We’ve Learned About Public Health Preparedness and Leadership

    In the United States, 743,452 “excess” (potentially preventable) deaths occurred from COVID-19 between February 2020 and September 4th, 2021, according to the CDC National Center for Health Statistics. This figure exceeds the number of excess deaths that occurred during the 1918-19 influenza pandemic, which was caused by an even deadlier virus.

  • Terrorist Attacks Against Vaccinators

    Since 2010, Islamist terrorists have increased their attacks on vaccinators in the Middle East, south Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Pakistan has seen the most attacks on vaccinators.

  • U.S. Domestic Terrorism Caseload “Exploding”

    U.S. national security and law enforcement agencies are battling what they describe as a “significant jump” in threats from domestic terrorists, many of whom are acting on their own and motivated by racial animosity or anti-government ideology.

  • The Role of Trust in Deciding Which Terrorist Faction to Join

    Research based on interviews with Irish Republican activists has shown that trust plays a greater role than ideology in how members pick sides when terrorist groups splinter. If commitment is primarily social rather than ideological, then counter-narrative or ideological “deprogramming” strategies may not help lure someone away from a group of individuals with whom he or she feels a close personal bond of trust.

  • Al-Qaida, Islamic State Group Struggle for Recruits

    As strange as it may sound, revolutionary Islamist groups suffer from recruitment problems as any other organization does. My research on Islamist terrorism has found that al-Qaida and its rival offshoot, the Islamic State group, have long had chronic difficulties replenishing their ranks.

  • Psychological Assessment of Individuals Linked to Radicalization, Lone-Wolf Terrorism

    In recent times, the phenomenon of lone wolf terrorism has been observed with the social assumption that a radicalized individual is only guided by personal, social, and ethnic reasons to commit an extremist act. But there is still much to understand about this phenomenon and improve the methods of investigation or psychiatric interventions.

  • How the Terrifying Evacuations from the Twin Towers on 9/11 Helped Make Today's Skyscrapers Safer

    One legacy of the 9/11 tragedy and the harrowing experience of those who successfully escaped the Twin Towers – the disaster was the most significant high-rise evacuation in modern times —  is that today’s skyscrapers can be emptied much more safely and easily in an emergency.

  • America Marks 20 Years Since 9/11 Attacks as Biden Searches for Closure

    The 9/11 terrorist attacks unfolded in less than two hours, killing 2,996 people. The war in Afghanistan, launched a month after the 9/11 attacks lasted 19 years, 10 months, three weeks and two days, with DOD counting 2.325 American military deaths. On Saturday, 11 September, President Biden will try to draw a line under these events, saying that a new era in American foreign and defense policy has begun. “But we will also see, as we always do, that one era does not end when a new era begins,” notes one historian.

  • Lessons from 9/11

    Beyond their painful human toll, the 9/11 terrorist attacks changed and continue to influence life in America in many ways. Harvard professors detail how the tragedy reshaped U.S. homeland security and foreign policy, study and treatment of PTSD, and crisis planning and management.