Mailing address
Not in Residence
Assaf Moghadam
Associate, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: (617) 642-1920
Email: assafm@hotmail.com
Experience
Assaf Moghadam is an Associate with the International Security Program's Initiative on Religion in International Affairs. He is also Assistant Professor and Senior Associate at the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he teaches courses on terrorism and international relations theory and directs the CTC's Shia Militancy Program. He is the author of two books, The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) and The Roots of Terrorism (New York: Chelsea House, 2006), as well as a monograph, A Global Resurgence of Religion? (Cambridge, Mass.: Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, 2003).
Assaf was previously a research fellow at the Belfer Center's International Security Program (2004–2006, 2007–2009) and a fellow in national security at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies (2006–2007) at Harvard University. His research interests are the nature and causes of terrorism and political violence, suicide attacks, Al Qaeda and the global jihad, jihadist ideology, Shia militancy, and the Middle East. He is currently completing work on two forthcoming edited volumes, Fault Lines of Global Jihad: Organizational, Strategic, and Ideological Fissures Within and Around Al Qaeda (co-edited with Brian Fishman) and Shia Militancy after 1979.
Assaf has lectured widely on terrorism, suicide attacks, and jihadism before various audiences in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. His articles have appeared in International Security, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA Journal), CTC Sentinel, Boston Globe, and International Herald Tribune. His book reviews have appeared in Perspectives on Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Transcultural Psychiatry, and Democracy and Security, among other journals. He serves on the editorial board of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.
Assaf holds a Ph.D. in international relations and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a B.A. in political science from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
AP Photo
January 2009
"Shifting Trends in Suicide Attacks"
Journal Article, CTC Sentinel, issue 1, volume 2
By Assaf Moghadam, Associate, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs
"By far, the most dramatic trend related to the location of suicide attacks is the gradual shift of incidents from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Between July 2007 and June 2008, the last one-year period for which data on suicide attacks are available, 58.2% of suicide attacks struck Iraq, and 36.6% struck Afghanistan and Pakistan. This compares to a much wider gap between suicide attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan in the preceding year (July 2006 to June 2007), when 69.3% of attacks took place in Iraq, and 25.1% in Afghanistan and Pakistan...."
AP Photo
Winter 2008/09
"Motives for Martyrdom: Al-Qaida, Salafi Jihad, and the Spread of Suicide Attacks"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 33
By Assaf Moghadam, Associate, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs
The global proliferation of suicide missions in recent years is a phenomenon that the occupation and outbidding theses cannot fully explain. A comprehensive analysis of 1,857 suicide attacks from December 1981 to March 2008 shows that al-Qaida’s evolution into a global terrorist actor and the growing appeal of its ideology, Salafi jihad, are interrelated factors that have contributed to the proliferation of suicide attacks. This is the first article to test the argument that many suicide attacks can be attributed to jihadist groups, creating a need for states to rethink their counterterrorism efforts—and to better convey to moderate Muslims and nonviolent Salafists the importance of challenging these groups.
December 2008
The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks
Book
By Assaf Moghadam, Associate, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs
This groundbreaking volume examines the rise and spread of suicide attacks over the past decade. Sorting through 1,270 terror strikes between 1981 and 2007, Assaf Moghadam attributes their recent proliferation to the mutually related ascendance of al Qaeda and its guiding ideology, Salafi Jihad, an extreme interpretation of Islam that rejects national boundaries and seeks to create a global Muslim community. This unflinching analysis provides new information about the relationship between ideology and suicide attacks and recommends policies focused on containing Salafi Jihadism.
AP Photo
February 2008
"The Salafi-Jihad as a Religious Ideology"
Journal Article, CTC Sentinel, issue 3, volume 1
By Assaf Moghadam, Associate, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs
"To those who are disoriented by modernity, the Salafi-jihad provides a new sense of self-definition and belonging in the form of a membership to a supranational entity....the United States and its allies should grasp every opportunity to highlight the disastrous consequences that Salafi-jihadist violence has wrought on the everyday lives not only of Westerners, but first and foremost on Muslims themselves....It is a fact that al-Qa`ida and associated groups offer no vision for Muslims other than perennial jihad—hardly an appealing prospect."
May 31, 2006
The Roots of Terrorism
Book
By Assaf Moghadam, Associate, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs
Spring 2006
Book Review: Suicide Bombers: Allah's New Martyrs by Farhad Khosrokhavar
Journal Article, Terrorism and Political Violence, issue 1, volume 18
By Assaf Moghadam, Associate, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs
Spring 2006
Book Review: Making Sense of Suicide Missions by Diego Gambetta, ed
Journal Article, Political Science Quarterly, issue 1, volume 121
By Assaf Moghadam, Associate, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs
November 18, 2005
"The New Martyrs Go Global"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Assaf Moghadam, Associate, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs
"Some have argued that ending occupation in Iraq and other places is the key to solving the jihadist problem. But we should be disabused of the belief that withdrawal alone will appease the new martyrs. Instead, the countries affected by suicide attacks must step up the battle for the hearts and minds of alienated young Muslims. This war of ideas should expose the hypocrisy of global jihad, but it must also consist of a more sensitive engagement with the Muslim world."
March / April 2005
Book Review: Fatal Future? Transnational Terrorism and the New Global Disorder by Richard M. Pearlstein
Journal Article, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, issue 2, volume 28
By Assaf Moghadam, Associate, International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs
