Online
On Tuesday, July 21 at 1:00 p.m. ET, Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS)’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC) Director Jason Blazakis provided a virtual lecture on “Trump's Deployment of Terrorist Designations: A Look at the IRGC and Russian Imperial Movement.” A link to the recording of this event can be found here. If you have any questions, please email the START events team at start-events@umd.edu.
Jason Blazakis is a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) where he focuses on threat financing, sanctions, violent extremism, and special operations related research. He is also the Director of MIIS’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism where he directs research on domestic terrorism, terrorism finance, recruitment, propaganda, and the use of special operations to counter transnational threats. CTEC provides expert guidance to and reports on the nature of far-right and far-left wing extremism to a world-leading Silicon Valley company as it fends off extremist efforts to abuse its platforms.
From 2008-2018, he served as the Director of the Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office, Bureau of Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State. In his former role, Jason was responsible for directing efforts to designate countries, organizations, and individuals as terrorists, also known as State Sponsors of Terrorism, Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Jason previously held positions in the Department of State’s Political-Military Affairs, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Intelligence and Research Bureaus, and at U.S. Embassy Kabul.