Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

Described as “a rising star in the counterterrorism community” by the International Herald Tribune, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is the Director of the Center for the Study of Terrorist Radicalization at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. His research interests include homegrown terrorism, radicalization, jihadist ideology, al-Qaeda’s safe havens, and energy security.

Gartenstein-Ross co-authored two major reports in 2009, Homegrown Terrorists in the U.S. and U.K. and Terrorism in the West 2008. The former is an empirical examination of the radicalization process in 117 homegrown jihadi terrorists that provides a new framework for understanding the impact of religious ideology. Renowned terrorism expert Brian Michael Jenkins, senior advisor to the president of the RAND Corporation, described the work as “an important study that adds to our knowledge of terrorist radicalization.” Gartenstein-Ross has presented his research on radicalization at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Marine Corps University, National Defense University, and to international delegations from Denmark and Russia, among others.

In addition to his academic research on terrorism, Gartenstein-Ross seeks to craft practical solutions to some of the field’s vexing problems. His consulting work has included live hostage negotiations, work on border security issues, and story development for major media companies. He frequently leads training for the U.S. military and federal, state, and local law enforcement; in 2009 he received a Leader Development and Education for Sustained Peace Support Excellence Award from U.S. Army Central Command for this work. Gartenstein-Ross has also served as a Subject Matter Expert designing and delivering training for the U.S. State Department’s Office of Antiterrorism Assistance, and was recently an expert witness in a successful asylum case where the asylee feared retribution from Somalia’s al-Shabaab due to his family’s support of the country’s transitional federal government.

Gartenstein-Ross has testified before the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Georgia’s state legislature. His writings on the war on terror have appeared in Reader’s Digest, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Weekly Standard, The Times of India, The National Post (Canada), The Washington Times, Middle East Quarterly, and many other publications. He has published four monographs, and co-edited the book From Energy Crisis to Energy Security as well as the forthcoming volume The Afghanistan-Pakistan Theater: Militant Islam, Security and Stability (FDD Press 2010). His memoir My Year Inside Radical Islam (Tarcher/Penguin 2007) details Gartenstein-Ross’s work in his early twenties for an international Wahhabi charity that has been named a specially designated global terrorist entity by the U.S. Treasury Department, an experience that provides him a unique perspective on Islamic extremism. His personal story was featured on CNN’s acclaimed 2007 special God’s Warriors, and other media appearances he has made include BBC, NPR, PBS, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and al-Jazeera.

A Ph.D. candidate in world politics at the Catholic University of America, Gartenstein-Ross earned a J.D., magna cum laude, from the New York University School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Wake Forest University, where he was a Nancy S. Reynolds Scholar and won the 1997 the national championship in intercollegiate policy debate. Gartenstein-Ross was selected for the Claremont Institute’s prestigious Lincoln Fellowship in 2007. He can conduct research in several languages, including Arabic, Italian, Spanish, and French.

Gartenstein-Ross can be contacted by e-mail at daveed@defenddemocracy.org, and you can follow him on Twitter.