Welcome
Thomas Hegghammer is an academic specializing in the study of violent Islamism. He is currently a fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government as well as a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) in Oslo. He holds a PhD in political science from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris and an MA and MPhil in Middle Eastern Studies from Oxford University. A fluent Arabic speaker, Dr. Hegghammer has conducted extensive field research in the Middle East.
Dr. Hegghammer's research focuses on the history and dynamics of violent Islamist movements, especially in Saudi Arabia. His current work centers on the internationalisation of Islamist militancy in the 1980s and 1990s. Thomas Hegghammer has published extensively on various aspects of radical Islamism. He is co-author of al-Qaida in its own words (Harvard University Press, 2008) and has two books in the making for Cambridge University Press: one about jihadism in Saudi Arabia, the other about Abdallah Azzam and the history of the Arab Afghans.
News/recent publications:
- Thomas Hegghammer takes up a fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, where he will be working with the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs (2 September 2008)
- Article on Islamist violence and regime stability in Saudi Arabia in International Affairs (22 July 2008)
- Al-Qaida in its own words (English version of al-Qaida dans le texte) published by Harvard University Press (11 June 2008)
- Book reviews (in Norwegian) of Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens and Jonas Gardell, Bin Laden i våre hjerter (11 June 2008)
- Article (in Norwegian) on "Al-Qaida's drill schools" in Norsk militært tidsskrift (11 June 2008)
- Commentary on "jihadi studies" in The Times Literary Supplement (2 April 2008)
- Article on al-Qaida and the 1996 Khobar bombing, in the CTC Sentinel (14 February 2008)
- Review essay about recent books on jihadism, published in Revista de Libros (21 January 2008)
- Op-ed on al-Qaida and Palestine in the Guardian (3 December 2007)
- Website launched (25 November 2007)