EP 13: ISIS and Religiously Inspired Terrorism: A Conversation with Jessica Stern

In this episode of Terrorism 360°, Founding Director of START Dr. Gary LaFree interviews Dr. Jessica Stern, an expert on perpetrators of violence and the possible connections between trauma and terror in the field of terrorism studies. She has written on terrorist groups across religions and ideologies, among them neo-Nazis, Islamists, anarchists, and white supremacists, writing also about anti-terrorist movements. She is currently working on a study of Radovan Karadzic, a former politician indicted for war crimes in Bosnia.

Om Podcasten

Terrorism 360° is a podcast brought to you by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) headquartered at the University of Maryland. In this podcast, Dr. Gary LaFree, the Founding Director of START, interviews the world’s leading experts on terrorism and responses to terrorism. This podcast explores their research, their insights into the causes and consequences of terrorism, and their recommendations for policy makers. The central organizing principle of this podcast is that sensible policy on terrorism requires an objective, science-based approach. But beyond this, we would like to approach terrorism from a wide variety of perspectives—hence the title, Terrorism 360. Our 15 guests on the podcast are all researchers who have contributed directly to scholarship on terrorism. In selecting our guests, we have tried to invite a diversity of opinions.  Some of our guests feel that worldwide responses to terrorism have not been strong enough—others feel that they have been far too strong. Some feel that the threat of terrorism is increasing—others that it is diminishing. See more on our website at start.umd.edu