Dr. Zachary Abuza, Professor of Political Science at Simmons College, Boston,
specializes in Southeast Asian politics and security issues. He is a graduate of
Trinity College and received his MALD and PHD from the Fletcher School of Law
and Diplomacy. He is the author of Muslims, Politics and Violence in
Indonesia (Routledge, 2006), Conspiracy of Silence: The Insurgency in
Southern Thailand and its Implications for Southeast Asian Security (US
Institute of Peace, 2008), Militant Islam in Southeast Asia (Lynne
Rienner, 2003) and Renovating Politics in Contemporary Vietnam (Lynne
Rienner, 2001). He has also authored two studies for the National Bureau of
Asian Research, entitled Funding Terrorism in Southeast Asia: The Financial
Network of Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, NBR Analysis (2003) and
Uncivil Islam: Muslims, Politics and Violence in Indonesia, NBR
Analysis (2004). His monograph, Balik Terrorism: The Return of the Abu
Sayyaf Group was published by the US Army War College's Security Studies
Institute in 2005. A study of Jemaah Islamiyah's overt strategy of engaging in
social welfare and charitable works, "Jemaah Islamiyah and the Inverse
Triangle," is due to be published in 2008. He is currently finishing a major
study of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which was supported by the United
States Institute of Peace and the Smith Richardson Foundation. Professor Abuza
authored the Vietnam chapters in the 2004 and 2006 Countries at the
Crossroads annual reports for Freedom House; and from 2001-2003 he served
as Vietnam country advisor for Amnesty International (USA). Dr. Abuza consults
widely and is a frequent commentator on Southeast Asian politics and security
issues in the press. He is a visiting guest lecturer at the Foreign Service
Institute, US Department of State and at the Department of Defense's Joint
Special Operations University. In 2005 he was a Senior Fellow at the United
States Institute of Peace. He is a frequent contributor to the Jane's
Intelligence Review, the Counterterrorism Blog and the Jamestown
Foundation's Terrorism Monitor.