May 19th, 2016

My new book, Essentials of Counterterrorism, is now available in paperback and hard cover.

Publisher’s website: http://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A4446C

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Counterterrorism-Praeger-Security-International/dp/1440832838

Online Terrorist Magazines:
A report from the Cyberterrorism Project (Swansea) in collaboration with UMass Lowell’s Center for Terrorism & Security Studies:
http://www.cyberterrorism-project.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CTP-2015-Report-Nov-03.pdf

The peer-reviewed journal Perspectives on Terrorism has published a special issue on the Islamic State with 14 research articles on various aspects of the organization, in addition to an extensive, specially compiled bibliography on IS.

» Continue reading “PT Special Issue on the Islamic State”

Click here for information about the new Second Edition of the Terrorism Lectures course textbook.

Interesting piece in the Guardian: “How to get published in an academic journal: top tips from editors”
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/03/how-to-get-published-in-an-academic-journal-top-tips-from-editors

New JSOU Report:  U.S. Military Deployments to Africa: Lessons from the Hunt for Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army , by James Forest

Department of Defense 2014 Minerva grant awards have been announced. UMass Lowell’s Center for Terrorism & Security Studies have received two of them – outstanding!

Here is the formal UMass Lowell CTSS Press Release

See the full list at: http://minerva.dtic.mil/funded.html

Click here for information on the 8th Annual International Conference on Terrorism and Counterterrorism (September 17-19, 2014), to be held in Boston and co-sponsored by UMass Lowell’s Center for Terrorism & Security Studies, the Society for Terrorism Research, and UMass Boston.

JSOU Report: Countering the al-Shabaab Insurgency in Somalia: Lessons for U.S. Special Operations Forces by Graham Turbiville, Josh Meservey, and James Forest

In this report, the authors argue that al-Shabaab’s current prospects have probably never been so low.  This work provides a meaningful context to al-Shabaab and the Somali milieu.  Al Shabaab has been pushed from all of its major strongholds by a robust international effort, and its violent Salafism has alienated many Somalis.  But it still has teeth.  It continues to harass coalition forces, as well as ordinary Somalis, with improvised explosive devices, suicide bombings, and assassinations.  Its tactics reflect a strategic decision made by its leadership to fight a guerrilla war, a familiar role for a group that thrived by waging an anti-Ethiopian insurgency in the emid-2000s.  This monograph is a useful resource for anyone who wishes to know more about the conflict in the Horn of Africa.

Click here to Download the full report in PDF

A favorable review of my book The Terrorism Lectures was recently published in the international scholarly journal Democracy and Security. Click here to download a copy of the review.

Here’s a link to the publisher’s website, for more info on the book.
http://www.nortiapress.com/shop/nonfiction/forest-terrorism-lectures/

Breaching the Fortress Wall: Understanding Terrorist Efforts to Overcome Defensive Technologies

Available online at: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG481.html

The National Counterterrorism Center has published its 2014 Calendar, which you can download at this link:

http://www.nctc.gov/docs/ctCalendar2014.pdf

In this issue of Perspectives on Terrorism we are pleased to present four articles on a variety of timely topics. First, Sarah Marsden offers a comparative analysis of several hundred Arab and Western media sources, highlighting their different conceptualisations of what constitutes ‘success’ and ‘failure’ in the ‘War on Terror’. Second, Iromi Dharmawardhane evaluates several aspects of the post-conflict initiatives in Sri Lanka, and offers recommendations to address shortcomings and persistent challenges. Third, an international team of scholars led by Mark Woodward challenge the perception that the Sufi tradition in Islam has always been tolerant and non-violent while the Salafist tradition is the one consistently associated with intolerance and violence. Finally, Kathleen Deloughery draws from several incident databases to explain how and why simultaneous terrorist attacks are more likely to be successful and cause more fatalities

This issue of the journal also introduces a new Policy Notes section, in which we will publish relatively short pieces containing informed analysis and policy recommendations on a variety of important topics. Josh Meservey inaugurates this section with a timely analysis of Somalia’s safe havens and their critical importance to al-Shabaab. This is followed by a review of international counterterrorism assistance to the Horn of Africa, authored by three senior analysts at the Centre on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation.

» Continue reading “Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 7 no. 6”

Short primer on terrorist disengagement, by Dr. John Horgan. The first of the new Center for Terrorism and Security Studies audio briefs! http://blogs.uml.edu/ctss/ 

(  also hosted via http://www.terroristbehavior.com/blog/    )