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R. Kim Cragin is a senior research fellow at the National Defense University. She was previously a political scientist at the RAND Corporation and also has taught as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland. Cragin focuses on terrorism-related issues. In the spring of 2008, she spent three months on General Petraeus’ (ret.) staff in Baghdad. In addition to Iraq, Cragin has conducted fieldwork in Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt, northwest China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, among others. Her RAND publications include Severing the Ties that Bind (2015), Disrupting Global Transit Hubs (2013), Social Science for Counter-Terrorism (2010) and Sharing the Dragon’s Teeth (2007). Cragin also has published academic articles, including “Resisting Violent Extremism” in the reviewed journal Terrorism and Political Violence (2013), “al-Qa’ida Confronts Hamas” in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (2009), and “The Early History of al-Qa’ida” in the Historical Journal (2008). Her book entitled Women as Terrorists: Mothers, Recruiters, and Martyrs was released by Praeger in 2009. Cragin has a masters degree from the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. She completed her Ph.D. at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.
Can Silicon Valley Help in Social Media War With ISIS?
On January 8, 2016, the White House announced the creation of a new Countering Violent Extremism Task Force, hosted at the Department of Homeland Security. In many ways, this task force is an extension of the 2011 strategy, Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States, as well as the 2015 Summit on Countering Violent Extremism. But the White House also used the opportunity to emphasize the role that social media plays in violent extremism today.
