Media Contact: Jessica Rivinius, 301-405-6632 or rivinius@umd.edu
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – (Aug. 21, 2014) – Given the recent dramatic gains of the Islamic State (formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS) on the ground in Iraq and Syria, many commentators are suggesting that the Islamic State has supplanted al-Qaida as the standard bearer of global jihadism.
William Braniff, executive director of the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), is available to address these topics and discuss the contrasting strategies of al-Qaida and the Islamic State as they relate to the establishment of the Caliphate.
“There are more similarities than differences between the organizations,” Braniff says, “but those significant differences can tell us a good deal about the drivers of terrorist violence.”
Braniff recently delivered a lecture on this topic to the intelligence community and has testified before Congress about the state of al-Qaida as well as U.S. Attitudes towards terrorism and counterterrorism.
Braniff is a graduate of the United States Military Academy. Following his Company Command as an Armor Officer in the U.S. Army, Braniff attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) where he received a master’s degree in international relations.
Media Contact: Jessica Rivinius, 301-405-6632 or rivinius@umd.edu.
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The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) is supported in part by the Science and Technology Directorate of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through a Center of Excellence program based at the University of Maryland. START uses state‐of‐the‐art theories, methods and data from the social and behavioral sciences to improve understanding of the origins, dynamics and social and psychological impacts of terrorism. For more information, contact START at infostart@start.umd.edu or visit www.start.umd.edu.