Dr. Magnus Ranstorp Joins Us As a Contributing Expert (updated)

By Andrew Cochran

We are honored to announce the addition of the esteemed Dr. Magnus Ranstorp to The Counterterrorism Blog. Dr Ranstorp is the Research Director of the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College, directing a large funded project on Strategic Terrorist Threats to Europe which focuses on both radicalisation and recruitment of salafist-jihadist terrorists across Europe and the critical issue of the convergence between CBRN and terrorism. Previously he was the Director of Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He is the author of Hizballah in Lebanon and other numerous articles and monographs on terrorism and counter-terrorism. His most recent edited book is Mapping Terrorism Research: State of the Art, Gaps and Future Direction (Routledge, 2006) (view the Table of Contents). He is on the International Editorial Advisory Board of the academic journal "Studies in Conflict and Terrorism."

He is internationally recognised as a leading expert on Hizballah, Hamas, al-Qaeda and other militant Islamic movements. He has conducted extensive field work around the world, interviewing hundreds of terrorists as well as members of militant Islamic movements. His work on the behaviour of the Hizballah movement was recognized by Israeli media in March 2000 as among the contributing factors leading to the decision by the Israeli government to withdraw from southern Lebanon.

Dr Ranstorp has briefed many senior government and security officials from around the world and lectures regularly to most major universities, think tanks and intergovernmental organisations. In 2003, he was invited to testify before the 9-11 Commission in its first hearing. He was also a member of an Advisory Panel on Terrorism in Europe advising the EU counterterrorism coordinator. In 2005, he was a contributor to the George C. Marshall Center directed project on: Ideological War on Terror: Synthesizing Strategies Worldwide (a project funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defence). In 2006 Dr Ranstorp was invited to join the European Commission Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation, an advisory body on all matters relating to radicalisation and recruitment of extremists within the EU.

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