Biography
Born in Narvik, Norway in 1977, Thomas Hegghammer was educated in Oriental Studies and Modern Middle East Studies at Oxford University and obtained his doctorate in political science from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris in 2007 with a thesis entitled "Violent Islamism in Saudi Arabia, 1979-2006: The Power and Perils of Pan-Islamic Nationalism".
Thomas Hegghammer is currently a a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) in Oslo and a non-resident fellow at New York University's Center on Law and Security. He has previously been member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2009-2010), fellow and associate at Harvard Kennedy School (2008-2010), postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University (2007-2008) and visiting fellow at King's College London (2005-2006).
Thomas Hegghammer has published widely on various aspects of Islamist militancy. He wrote Jihad in Saudi Arabia (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and co-authored Al-Qaida dans le texte (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2005). His articles have appeared in academic journals such as International Affairs, The International Journal of Middle East Studies, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, The Middle East Journal, Middle East Policy, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Cultures et Conflits. He has also written for the International Crisis Group and Oxford Analytica. He is also the editor of Jihadica, a blog that covers developments on jihadist websites.
Dr. Hegghammer regularly advises the US, UK and Norwegian governments on matters relating to Islamism and terrorism. He served as an expert witness in parliamentary hearings on anti-terrorism legislation in Canada (2005) and Denmark (2006). He has also been frequently quoted in international media.
