With much of the global focus on the ongoing conflicts in the Gulf and Levant, independent terrorist groups and extremist non-state actors in the Middle East have received far less attention from policymakers in recent years. Against this backdrop, the White House released its Counterterrorism Strategy in late May, introducing significant changes to longstanding assumptions about both geographic priorities and the ideologies driving the most serious terrorist threats.
To discuss the latest US counterterrorism strategy in the context of the Middle East and the level of threat regional terrorist groups continue to pose, the Middle East Institute will host an on-the-record webinar on June 17, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET. Providing perspective on these issues will be Colin P. Clarke, Executive Director of The Soufan Center, and Michael Jacobson, Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former Director of Strategy, Plans, and Initiatives in the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau. The discussion will be moderated by MEI Senior Fellow Jason Campbell.
Panelists
Dr. Colin P. Clarke is the Executive Director of The Soufan Center. His research focuses on domestic and transnational terrorism, international security, and geopolitics. He previously served as the Director of Research at The Soufan Group and as a Senior Research Fellow with The Soufan Center. Prior to those roles, Clarke was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where he spent a decade researching terrorism, insurgency, and criminal networks.
Mr. Michael Jacobson is the Mark and Wayne Levy Senior Fellow in The Washington Institute’s Jeanette and Eli Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. Prior to rejoining the Institute, Mr. Jacobson served in the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau from 2010 until 2025. Most recently, he served as the Director of Strategy, Plans and Initiatives, where he played a key role in the development of the Bureau’s priorities and goals, ensuring that all activities were appropriately aligned with these overarching objectives.
Dr. Jason H. Campbell (Moderator) is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute, where he focuses on international security, geopolitics, and foreign policy. Prior to joining MEI, he was a Senior Policy Researcher at RAND, covering an array of defense and national security issues. From June 2016 through September 2018, he served as Country Director for Afghanistan in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy.
