Tuesday, March 25, 2025 14:00-16:00 ET   Please join the International Center for Terrorism Studies (ICTS) for a webinar on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, from 2:00pm - 4:00pm EST to explore the current global terrorism climate. In view of expanded domestic extremism in the U.S. and continuing state and non-state terrorism abroad, what is the annual threat assessment? A panel of academics and professionals will focus on the lessons for counter-terrorism strategies in 2024 and beyond to affect strategic policy recommendations. Speakers Professor Dean Alexander Professor and Director, Homeland Security Research Program at Western Illinois University   Dean C. Alexander is Director, Homeland Security Research Program and Professor, Homeland Security at the School of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration at Western Illinois University. Prof. Alexander’s teaching, research, and speaking activities encompass terrorism, security, and legal issues. He has lectured in ten countries, including to law enforcement and military officials,  at the National Intelligence University, NATO's Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism, Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center, Oregon Fusion Center, Michigan State Police, Milwaukee Police Department, McAllen Police Department, and Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, among others. Prof. Alexander’s professional experience includes executive, business development, and legal positions in the United States and abroad, including Chile, Israel, and the United Kingdom. He worked as a consultant to the World Bank, Organization of American States, homeland security firms, and investment companies. Since publishing on terrorism in 1991, Prof. Alexander has written several books on the subject, including: Family Terror Networks (2019), The Islamic State: Combating the Caliphate Without Borders (Lexington, 2015), Business Confronts Terrorism: Risks and Responses (Univ. of Wisconsin, 2004) and Terrorism and Business: The Impact of September 11, 2001 (Transnational, 2002). Prof. Alexander has been interviewed by domestic and international media. Prof. Alexander is on the Advisory Board of Security Magazine. He was a founding Advisory Council member of the Marsh Center for Risk Insights, research fellow at the Chesapeake Innovation Center, and served on the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council Executive Board for the Central District of Illinois.   Dr. Colin Clarke Director of Research, Soufan Group Prior to joining The Soufan Group, 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. At RAND, Clarke led studies on ISIS financing, the future of terrorism and transnational crime, and lessons learned from all insurgencies since the end of the World War II. Clarke is also an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) – The Hague, a non-resident Senior Fellow in the Program on National Security at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), an Associate Fellow at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET), and a member of the “Network of Experts” at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Clarke serves as part of the research advisory council at the RESOLVE Network and is a member of the advisory board at the International Counter-Terrorism Review (ICTR). He serves on the editorial board of three of the leading scholarly journals in the field of terrorism studies, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Perspectives on Terrorism. Clarke has testified before Congress on numerous occasions as an expert witness on a range of terrorism-related issues, appears frequently in the media to discuss national security-related matters, and has published several books on terrorism, including his most recent, After the Caliphate: The Islamic State and the Future Terrorist Diaspora. Clarke has briefed his research at a range of national and international security forums, including the U.S. Army War College, US Air Force Special Operations School, Society for Terrorism Research International Conference, the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) and the Counter ISIS Financing Group (CIFG), which is part of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. In 2011, he spent several months as an analyst with Combined Joint Interagency Task Force-Shafafiyat at ISAF headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, working for General H.R. McMaster, the former U.S. National Security Advisor, where he was responsible for analyzing criminal patronage networks in Afghanistan and how these networks fueled the insurgency. Clarke has a Ph.D. in international security policy from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). Dr. Laura Dugan Ralph D. Mershon Professor of Human Security, Professor of Sociology at The Ohio State University   Dr. Laura Dugan is Ralph D. Mershon Professor of Human Security and Professor of Sociology at The Ohio State University. Her research examines the consequences of violence and the efficacy of violence prevention/intervention policy and practice. She also designs methodological strategies to overcome data limitations inherent in the social sciences. Dr. Dugan is a founding co-principal investigator for the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and co-principal investigator to the Government Actions in Terrorist Environments (GATE) dataset. The GTD is the most comprehensive source of terrorist incidents, as it records all known attacks across the globe since 1970. The GATE data record government actions related to terrorists and their constituencies for a select set of countries since 1987. Dr. Dugan’s research has been published in top journals in criminology and sociology. She has also published in political science and public policy journals.  She has published with colleagues, Putting Terrorism into Context: Lessons Learned from the World’s Most Comprehensive Terrorism Database, along with more than sixty journal articles and book chapters. Her publications appear in journals such as the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Criminology, the American Sociological Review, Law and Society Review, as well as Terrorism and Political Violence, and the Journal of Peace Research. Mr. Chris Costa Executive Director, International Spy Museum. Former Special Assistant to the President & Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council Colonel Costa is the Executive Director of the International Spy Museum, and a 34-year veteran of the Department of Defense. Previously, he served 25 years in the United States Army working in counterintelligence, human intelligence and with special operations forces (SOF) in Central America, Europe, and throughout the Middle East. He ran a wide range of intelligence and special operations in Panama, Bosnia, the first and second Iraq wars, and Afghanistan. Costa earned two Bronze stars for sensitive human intelligence work in Afghanistan. Later assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, he served as the first civilian squadron Deputy Director. In 2013, Costa was inducted into the United States Special Operation’s Commando Hall of Honor for lifetime service to US Special Operations. Most recently, he served as the Special Assistant to the President & Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. REGISTER HERE Opening Remarks Dr. Jen BussCEO Moderated By Dr. Margaret McWeeneyResearch Analyst Mr. Kevin HarringtonResearch Analyst About ICTS  The threat of terrorism is ever evolving, always changing and therefore must be continually examined. However, the field of terrorism research is static and often fragmented into domestic, international, and academic disciplines. The International Center for Terrorism Studies (ICTS) integrates traditional terrorism research with new and innovative approaches that explore terrorism-adjacent activities (i.e. cybercrime, emerging disruptive technology, money-laundering, cartel violence, etc.) to counter terrorism threats in the 21st century. Our dedicated staff and extensive network of subject-matter experts examine current trends, anticipate future terrorism, and collaborate with researchers as well as practitioners to identify detection, mitigation, and reduction strategies. Learn More Here