Breaking the Glass Ceiling? Female Participation in Militant Organizations in Islamic State Affiliates in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT

Prior research on female participation in militant organizations explores organizational and individual factors that influence women’s recruitment, and the roles women fulfill. However, most research focuses either on transnational organizations or local militant groups. Within this study, we explore how linkages with transnational groups shape female participation within their overseas affiliate organizations. We employ an original dataset of female militants arrested or killed between 2014 and 2019 in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, accounting for organizational affiliation. Overall, we find that female participation in militant groups increased between 2015 and 2017, with most of the increase associated with the Islamic State. While most women with an Islamic State association assumed non-combat roles, more than a third assumed combatant roles, indicating the influence of country-level and regional dynamics. Based on our data, female combatants with an Islamic State association served exclusively as either suicide attackers or conducted bombings, diverging from the varied roles assumed by women combatants in other groups in the region. Overall, our findings highlight how the nature of transnational organizations can combine with the local dynamics of their affiliate groups to produce unique trends in the local female militant landscape.

KEYWORDS:

• Southeast Asia
• Islamic state
• female militancy
• terrorism
• insurgency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

1. Charlie Campbell, “ISIS Suicide Bomber Dian Yulia Novi Talks Jihad,” Time, March 3, 2017, https://time.com/4689714/indonesia-isis-terrorism-jihad-extremism-dian-yulia-novi-fpi/; and R. Kim Cragin and Ari Weil, “‘Virtual Planners’ in the Arsenal of Islamic State External Operations,” Orbis 62, no. 2 (February 17, 2018), https://www.fpri.org/article/2018/04/virtual-planners-in-the-arsenal-of-islamic-state-external-operations/.

2. Campbell, “ISIS Suicide Bomber Dian Yulia Novi Talks Jihad.”

3. Kirsten E. Schulze, “The Surabaya Bombings and the Evolution of the Jihadi Threat in Indonesia,” CTC Sentinel 11, no. 6 (June 22, 2018), https://ctc.usma.edu/surabaya-bombings-evolution-jihadi-threat-indonesia/.

4. Schulze, “The Surabaya Bombings and the Evolution of the Jihadi Threat in Indonesia.”

5. Febriana Firdaus, “The Making of a Female ISIS Bomber,” New Naratif, June 4, 2018, https://newnaratif.com/journalism/making-female-isis-bomber/.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.; Janice Tai, “Foreign Maids Learn about Radicalisation Risks from Documentary and Dialogue,” The Straits Times, September 22, 2019, https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/manpower/foreign-maids-learn-about-radicalisation-risks-from-documentary-and-dialogue.

8. Firdaus, “The Making of a Female ISIS Bomber.”

9. Cragin and Weil, “Virtual Planners,” 308.

10. We use the term IS-Central to refer to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to differentiate it from its global affiliates.

11. We focus on Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines as they have the highest levels of IS-linked attacks and affiliates in the region. More information about the militant landscape in these countries can be found in Appendix F.

12. In our dataset, these include factions of the Abu Sayyaf Group, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, Maute Group, and the Mujahideen Indonesian Timur.

13. In our dataset, these include the Communist Party of the Philippines—New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

14. Zakuan, “Radicalization of Women in ISIS in Malaysia”; Schulze, “The Surabaya Bombings and the Evolution of the Jihadi Threat in Indonesia.”

15. Per Lahoud, segregation of the sexes refers to the Qu’ranic requirement that women not interact with men outside of her home—this forbids women from participating as fighters but allows for them to participate as suicide bombers.

16. Alexis Leanna Henshaw, “Where Women Rebel,” International Feminist Journal of Politics 18, no. 1 (January 2, 2016): 39–60, https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2015.1007729; Miranda Alison, “Women as Agents of Political Violence: Gendering Security,” Security Dialogue 35, no. 4 (2004): 447–63; and Mia Bloom, Bombshell: Women and Terrorism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).

17. Amanda N. Spencer, “The Hidden Face of Terrorism: An Analysis of the Women in Islamic State,” Journal of Strategic Security 9, no. 3 (2016): 74–98; Ruth Gan, Loo Seng Neo, Jeffery Chin, and Majeed Khader, “Change Is the Only Constant: The Evolving Role of Women in the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS),” Women & Criminal Justice 29, no. 4–5 (September 3, 2019): 204–20, https://doi.org/10.1080/08974454.2018.1547674; Sofia Patel, “The Sultanate of Women: Exploring Female Roles in Perpetrating and Preventing Violent Extremism” (Australian Strategic Policy Institute, February 2017); Katharina Von Knop, “The Female Jihad: Al Qaeda’s Women,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 30, no. 5 (April 17, 2007): 397–414, https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100701258585; Edwin Bakker and Seran de Leede, “European Female Jihadists in Syria: Exploring an Under-Researched Topic,” ICCT Background Note (The Hague: International Center for Counter-Terrorism, April 2015); Nelly Lahoud, “Empowerment or Subjugation: An Analysis of ISIL’s Gendered Messaging” (UN Women Regional Office for Arab States, June 2018), https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Lahoud-Fin-Web-rev.pdf; and Charlie Winter, “ISIS, Women and Jihad: Breaking With Convention” (Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, London, United Kingdom, September 13, 2018), https://institute.global/insight/co-existence/isis-women-and-jihad-breaking-convention.

18. Spencer, “The Hidden Face of Terrorism.”

19. Patel, “The Sultanate of Women”; Von Knop, “The Female Jihad”; and S. Raghavan and V. Balasubramaniyan, “Evolving Role of Women in Terror Groups: Progression or Regression?” Journal of International Women’s Studies 15, no. 2 (August 1, 2014): 197–211.

20. Mia Bloom, Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005); Meredith Loken and Anna Zelenz, “Explaining Extremism: Western Women in Daesh,” European Journal of International Security 3, no. 1 (February, 2018): 45–68, https://doi.org/10.1017/eis.2017.13; and Karen Jacques and Paul J. Taylor, “Male and Female Suicide Bombers: Different Sexes, Different Reasons?” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 31, no. 4 (April 4, 2008): 304–26, https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100801925695.

21. Angela Dalton and Victor Asal, “Is It Ideology or Desperation: Why Do Organizations Deploy Women in Violent Terrorist Attacks?” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 34, no. 10 (October 1, 2011): 802–19, https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2011.604833; Eileen MacDonald, Shoot the Women First, 1st ed. (New York: Random House, 1992); and Nakissa P. Jahanbani and Charmaine N. Willis, “The Ballot or the Bomb Belt: The Roots of Female Suicide Terrorism before and after 9/11,” Small Wars & Insurgencies 30, no. 6–7 (November 10, 2019): 1117–50, https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2019.1649817.

22. Victor Asal and Amira Jadoon, “When Women Fight: Unemployment, Territorial Control and the Prevalence of Female Combatants in Insurgent Organizations,” Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict (2019): 1–24. doi: 10.1080/17467586.2019.1700542.

23. Joana Cook and Gina Vale, “From Daesh to ‘Diaspora’: Tracing the Women and Minors of Islamic State,” (International Center for the Study of Radicalization, London, United Kingdom, 2018), https://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ICSR-Report-From-Daesh-to-‘Diaspora’-Tracing-the-Women-and-Minors-of-Islamic-State.pdf.

24. Patel, “The Sultanate of Women.”

25. Mah-Rukh Ali, “ISIS and Propaganda: How ISIS Exploits Women” (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2015), https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/isis-and-propaganda.

26. Hamoon Khelghat-Doost, “Women of the Caliphate: The Mechanism for Women’s Incorporation into the Islamic State (IS),” Perspectives on Terrorism 11, no. 1 (2017): 17–25.

27. Umar Cheema, “20 Men, Women, Children from Lahore Join Daesh, Go to Syria,” The News, December 31, 2015, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/85370-20-men-women-children-from-Lahore-join-Daesh-go-to-Syria.

28. Pedro Manrique, Zhenfeng Cao, Andrew Gabriel, John Horgan, Paul Gill, Hong Qi, Elvira M. Restrepo, Daniela Johnson, Stefan Wuchty, Chaoming and Neil Johnson, “Women’s Connectivity in Extreme Networks,” Science Advances 2, no. 6 (June 1, 2016), https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501742.

29. Cook and Vale, “From Daesh to ‘Diaspora’”; Lahoud, “Empowerment or Subjugation”; and Winter, “ISIS, Women and Jihad.”

30. Cook and Vale, “From Daesh to ‘Diaspora.’”

31. Gina Vale, “Women in Islamic State: From Caliphate to Camps,” (ICCT Policy Brief, International Center for Counter-Terrorism, The Hague, The Netherlands, October 3, 2019). https://icct.nl/app/uploads/2019/10/Women-in-Islamic-State-From-Caliphate-to-Camps.pdf

32. Lahoud, “Empowerment or Subjugation”; Leah Windsor, “The Language of Radicalization: Female Internet Recruitment to Participation in ISIS Activities,” Terrorism and Political Violence 32, no. 3 (April 2, 2020): 506–38, https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2017.1385457; and Cragin and Weil, “Virtual Planners.”

33. Windsor, “The Language of Radicalization,” 512.

34. Nazneen Mohsina, “Growing Trends of Female ‘Jihadism’ in Bangladesh,” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses 9, no. 8 (2017): 7–11.

35. Jason Warner and Hilary Matfess, Exploding Stereotypes: The Unexpected Operational and Demographic Characteristics of Boko Haram’s Suicide Bombers (West Point, NY: Combating Terrorism Center, 2017).

36. Schulze, “The Surabaya Bombings and the Evolution of the Jihadi Threat in Indonesia.”

37. Bennett Clifford and Helen Powell, “Encrypted Extremism: Inside the English-Speaking Islamic State Ecosystem on Telegram” (Program on Extremism, Washington, DC, June 2019). https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/EncryptedExtremism.pdf.

38. Burcu Pinar Alakoc, “Femme Fatale: The Lethality of Female Suicide Bombers,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 43, no. 9 (September 10, 2018), https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2018.1505685; and Raghavan and Balasubramaniyan, “Evolving Role of Women in Terror Groups.”

39. Alakoc, “Femme Fatale”; Dalton and Asal, “Is It Ideology or Desperation”; Von Knop, “The Female Jihad”; Bloom, Bombshell; and Raghavan and Balasubramaniyan, “Evolving Role of Women in Terror Groups.”

40. Von Knop, “The Female Jihad”; and Raghavan and Balasubramaniyan, “Evolving Role of Women in Terror Groups.”

41. Simon Cottee and Mia Bloom, “The Myth of the ISIS Female Suicide Bomber,” The Atlantic, September 8, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/09/isis-female-suicide-bomber/539172/.

42. Angela Dalton and Victor Asal, “Is It Ideology or Desperation”; and Jakana L. Thomas and Kanisha D. Bond, “Women’s Participation in Violent Political Organizations,” American Political Science Review 109, no. 3 (August 2015): 488–506, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055415000313.

43. Jocelyn Viterna, Women in War: The Micro-Processes of Mobilization in El Salvador (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013), https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199843633.001.0001/acprof-9780199843633; Bloom, Bombshell; and Thomas and Bond, “Women’s Participation in Violent Political Organizations.”

44. Von Knop, “The Female Jihad.”

45. Jessica Davis, “Evolution of the Global Jihad: Female Suicide Bombers in Iraq,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 36, no. 4 (2013): 279–91; and Jennie Stone and Katherine Pattolli, “Al-Qaeda’s Use of Female Suicide Bombers in Iraq: A Case Study,” in Women, Gender and Terrorism, ed. Laura Sjoberg and Caron Gentry (Athens, GA: University of George Press, 2011), 159–76.

46. Patel, “The Sultanate of Women”; Bakker and de Leede, “European Female Jihadists in Syria”; and Lahoud, “Empowerment or Subjugation.”

47. Per Lahoud, Segregation of the sexes may forbid women from participating as fighters but allows for them to participate as suicide bombers, per Islamic State’s ideology. See Nelly Lahoud, “Empowerment or Subjugation: An Analysis of ISIL’s Gendered Messaging” (UN Women Regional Office for Arab States, June 2018).

48. Bidisha Biswas and Shirin Deylami, “Radicalizing Female Empowerment: Gender, Agency, and Affective Appeals in Islamic State Propaganda,” Small Wars & Insurgencies 30, no. 6–7 (November 10, 2019): 1193–213, https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2019.1649831.

49. Carolyn Hoyle, Alexandra Bradford, and Ross Frenett, “Becoming Mulan? Female Western Migrants to ISIS,” (Institute for Strategic Dialogue, London, United Kingdom, 2015), https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ISDJ2969_Becoming_Mulan_01.15_WEB.pdf; and Anita Peresin and Alberto Cervone, “The Western Muhajirat of ISIS,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 38 (2015): 495–509.

50. Erin Marie Saltman and Melanie Smith, “‘Till Martyrdom Do Us Part’: Gender and the ISIS Phenomenon,” (Institute for Strategic Dialogue, London, United Kingdom, 2015), https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Till_Martyrdom_Do_Us_Part_Gender_and_the_ISIS_Phenomenon.pdf

51. Gan et al., “Change Is the Only Constant”; Winter, “ISIS, Women and Jihad”; Charlie Winter and Devorah Margolin, “The Mujahidat Dilemma: Female Combatants and the Islamic State,” CTC Sentinel 10, no. 7 (August 2017), https://ctc.usma.edu/the-mujahidat-dilemma-female-combatants-and-the-islamic-state/.

52. Winter, “ISIS, Women and Jihad”; Winter and Margolin, “The Mujahidat Dilemma”; Schulze, “The Surabaya Bombings and the Evolution of the Jihadi Threat in Indonesia.”

53. Winter, “ISIS, Women and Jihad.”

54. Ibid.

55. Cook and Vale, “From Daesh to ‘Diaspora.’”

56. Winter, “ISIS, Women and Jihad.”

57. Winter, “ISIS, Women and Jihad.”

58. Lahoud, “Empowerment or Subjugation,” 21.

59. Zakuan, “Radicalization of Women in ISIS in Malaysia”; and Schulze, “The Surabaya Bombings and the Evolution of the Jihadi Threat in Indonesia.”

60. Jadoon, Allied and Lethal.

61. Kiriloi M. Ingram, “Revisiting Marawi: Women and the Struggle Against the Islamist State in the Philippines,” Lawfare Blog, August 4, 2019, https://www.lawfareblog.com/revisiting-marawi-women-and-struggle-against-islamic-state-philippines; “Some MNLF Fighters, Including Women, Joined Zamboanga Siege for Money,” GMA News Online, September 16, 2013, https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/regions/326687/some-mnlf-fighters-including-women-joined-zamboanga-siege-for-money/story/.

62. Sara Mahmood, “Negating Stereotypes: Women, Gender, and Terrorism in Indonesia and Pakistan” (Program on Extremism, George Washington University, Washington, DC,February 2019): 14, https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2191/f/Negating%20Stereotypes-%20Women%20Gender%20and%20Terrorism%20in%20Indonesia%20and%20Pakistan.pdf.

63. Sara Mahmood, “Negating Stereotypes: Women, Gender, and Terrorism in Indonesia and Pakistan,”14.; V. Arianti and Nur Azlin Yasin, “Women’s Proactive Roles in Jihadism in Southeast Asia,” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses 8, no. 5 (May 2016): 11.

64. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Vivian Hagerty, and Madeline Dement, “The Demographics of Southeast Asian Jihadism,” War on the Rocks (blog), September 5, 2018, https://warontherocks.com/2018/09/the-demographics-of-southeast-asian-jihadism/.

65. Their study is focused on the time period 2017–2018 and excludes individuals for whom no demographic data was available. Moreover, their study does not provide any information on organizational associations.

66. Zakuan, “Radicalization of Women in ISIS in Malaysia”; and Muh Nahdohdin, Desca Angelianawati, Ardi Putra Prasetya, Kenneth Yeo Yaoren, Jennifer Dhanaraj, Iftekharul Bashar, Sylvene See, and Amalina Abdul Nasir, “Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore,” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses 11, no. 1 (2019): 6–32.

67. Nelly Lahoud, “Empowerment or Subjugation: An Analysis of ISIL’s Gendered Messaging.”

68. Singapore was also included, but had few (2) results, thus we excluded it from analysis.

69. Consult Appendix E for an overview of our coding scheme.

70. There are inherent limits to relying on open-source data: first, we cannot assume that every female arrest was covered and, second, we cannot assume that we found and coded every available demographic detail regarding females arrested or involved. Additionally, language barriers limited the amount of demographic information we could extract from both NexisUni and open sources. To remediate, we used a variety of searches to triangulate our coding and Google Translate to read articles in non-English languages. In sum, we acknowledge that both underreporting and coder error may be present in our dataset.

71. In our dataset, these include the Communist Party of the Philippines—New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

72. Further details about these roles are provided in Appendix E (b).

73. As such, an individual was coded as 1 if they conducted, or attempted to conduct, an attack with a family member related by blood or marriage and as 0 if they successfully conducted, or attempted to conduct, an attack either individually or with individuals unrelated to them by blood or marriage.

74. See Appendix A for supplemental graphics about the number of records in our dataset over time.

75. For the purposes of our study, regional trends denote an aggregation of all three countries in our dataset.

76. See the following appendices for additional demographic information: Appendix B (age), Appendix C (employment), and Appendix D (marital status).

77. Michael Hart, “A Year After Marawi, What’s Left of ISIS in the Philippines?” The Diplomat, October 25, 2018, https://thediplomat.com/2018/10/a-year-after-marawi-whats-left-of-isis-in-the-philippines/; United States Department of State, “Country Reports on Terrorism 2017—Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Abu Sayyaf Group” (September 19, 2018), https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bcf1f5ee.html.

78. Francis Chan, “Indonesian Militants’ Presence in Marawi City Sparks Alarm,” The Straits Times, June 12, 2017, https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesian-militants-presence-in-marawi-city-sparks-alarm; it is unclear whether any of these militants sent by JAD were female.

79. Cameron Glenn, Mattisan Rowan, John Caves, and Garrett Nada, “Timeline: The Rise, Spread, and Fall of the Islamic State,” The Wilson Center, October 28, 2019, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/timeline-the-rise-spread-and-fall-the-islamic-state.

80. For specifics, see: Lizzie Dearden, “Isis Is Calling on Women to Fight and Launch Terror Attacks for the First Time,” The Independent, October 6, 2017, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-war-syria-iraq-women-call-to-arms-islamic-state-terror-attacks-propaganda-change-ban-frontline-a7986986.html; Winter and Margolin, “The Mujahidat Dilemma.”

81. Winter and Margolin, “The Mujahidat Dilemma.”

82. “Philippine Army Says Battle for Marawi to End Soon, 1,000 Dead,” The Straits Times, October 15, 2017, https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/army-says-battle-for-philippine-city-to-end-soon-1000-dead.

83. Peter van Ostaeyen, “OSINT Summary: Suspected SVBIED Attack in the Philippines’ Basilan Suggests Potential Shift in Islamic State-Affiliated Militant Tactics” (Jane’s Terrorism & Insurgency Monitor, August 7, 2018).

84. Cindy D. Ness, “In the Name of the Cause: Women’s Work in Secular and Religious Terrorism,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 28, no. 5 (September 1, 2005): 353–73, https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100500180337.

85. Winter, “ISIS, Women and Jihad.”

86. Kirsten E. Schulze and Joseph Chinyong Liow, “Making Jihadis, Waging Jihad: Transnational and Local Dimensions of the ISIS Phenomenon in Indonesia and Malaysia,” Asian Security 15, no. 2 (May 4, 2019): 122–39, https://doi.org/10.1080/14799855.2018.1424710.

87. Schulze and Liow, “Making Jihadis, Waging Jihad,”130, 133.

88. Schulze and Liow, “Making Jihadis, Waging Jihad,”133.

89. Jomana Karadsheh, Jim Sciutto, and Laura Smith-Spark, “How Foreign Fighters Are Swelling ISIS Ranks in Startling Numbers,” CNN, September 14, 2014.

90. “Timeline: The Rise, Spread, and Fall of the Islamic State.”

91. “Philippines: Addressing Islamist Militancy after the Battle for Marawi” (Commentary, International Crisis Group, July 17, 2018), https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-east-asia/philippines/philippines-addressing-islamist-militancy-after-battle-marawi.

92. Schulze, “The Surabaya Bombings and the Evolution of the Jihadi Threat in Indonesia.”

93. Eva Nisa and Faried F. Saenong, “Female Suicide Bombers: How Terrorist Propaganda Radicalises Indonesian Women,” The Conversation (blog), June 25, 2018, http://theconversation.com/female-suicide-bombers-how-terrorist-propaganda-radicalises-indonesian-women-98143.

94. Winter, “ISIS, Women and Jihad.”

95. Joseph Chinyong Liow, “Malaysia’s ISIS Conundrum” Brookings Institute (November 30, 2001), https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/malaysias-isis-conundrum/.

96. Liow, “Malaysia’s ISIS Conundrum.”

97. Unaesah Rahmah, “The Role of Women of the Islamic State in the Dynamics of Terrorism in Indonesia” (Middle East Institute, May 10, 2016), https://www.mei.edu/publications/role-women-islamic-state-dynamics-terrorism-indonesia.

98. Patel, “The Sultanate of Women”; Bakker and de Leede, “European Female Jihadists in Syria”; and Lahoud, “Empowerment or Subjugation.”

99. Winter and Margolin, “The Mujahidat Dilemma.”

100. Peresin and Cervone, “The Western Muhajirat of ISIS.”

101. Lies Marcoes, “Why do Indonesian Women Join Radical Groups?” Indonesia at Melbourne (blog), November 26, 2015, https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/why-do-indonesian-women-join-radical-groups/.

102. Charles Knight and Katja Theodorakis, “The Marawi Crisis—Urban Conflict and Information Operations” (Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Barton, Australia, July 2019), https://www.aspi.org.au/report/marawi-crisis-urban-conflict-and-information-operations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amira Jadoon

Amira Jadoon is an assistant professor at the Combating Terrorism Center and the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. She specializes in international security, economic statecraft, political violence, and terrorism.

Julia Maria Lodoen

Julia Maria Lodoen is a Junior Fellow with the South Asia Program at the Stimson Center. She holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago and focuses on nuclear strategy, civil-military relations, and political violence.

Charmaine Noelle Willis

Charmaine Noelle Willis is a PhD candidate at the University at Albany. Her research focuses on contentious politics, political violence, and East Asian politics.

Nakissa Puneh Jahanbani

Nakissa Puneh Jahanbani is an instructor and researcher at the Combating Terrorism Center and the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. She specializes in political violence, specifically terrorism and state support to militant organizations.