Assaf Moghadam is the 2025-2026 Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor at Georgetown University. He is a Professor and former Dean at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at Reichman University. He is also a Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) at Reichman University. Prof. Moghadam has taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point, Columbia University, and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He previously served as Director of Terrorism Studies and Assistant Professor at the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) and the Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He held fellowships at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (CTC) and at the Center for National Security at Fordham Law School. He also held pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, both at Harvard University; at the Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies at Columbia University; and at the Jebsen Center for Counterterrorism at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He was an affiliated researcher at the Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland.
Prof. Moghadam’s research examines the dynamics within and between militant actors, with a particular focus on terrorism, insurgency, and proxy wars. He is the co-editor (with Vladimir Rauta and Michel Wyss) of the ‘Routledge Handbook of Proxy Wars’ (2023; paperback version 2025), and author of ‘Nexus of Global Jihad: Understanding Cooperation among Terrorist Actors’ (Columbia University Press, 2017, paperback edition 2019). He is also the author of ‘The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks’ (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), which won a Choice award for Outstanding Academic Title, and of ‘The Roots of Terrorism’ (Chelsea House, 2006). He is the co-editor (with Brian Fishman) of ‘Fault Lines in Global Jihad: Organizational, Strategic, and Ideological Fissures’ (Routledge, 2011), and the editor of ‘Militancy and Political Violence in Shiism: Trends and Patterns’ (Routledge, 2012). Two of his books are listed among the top 150 books on terrorism in the journal Perspectives on Terrorism.
Prof. Moghadam is a Contributing Editor for the journal 'Studies in Conflict and Terrorism', and an editorial board member of 'Terrorism and Political Violence', 'Democracy and Security', and 'Perspectives on Terrorism'. His academic publications have appeared in International Security, Security Studies, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, Perspectives on Terrorism, and International Studies Review. His writings have also appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, Orbis, CTC Sentinel, War on the Rocks, Lawfare, and Die Zeit, among others.
Prof. Moghadam holds a Ph.D. in international relations and an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy (MALD), both from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a B.A. in political science from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Academic Appointment(s)
- Primary
- Visiting Faculty, College - Department of Government