Michael Freeman is a professor in the Department of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is the author of Freedom or Security: The Consequences for Democracies Using Emergency Powers to Fight Terror, the editor of Terror Financing: Case Studies, and the executive editor of the journal Combating Terrorism Exchange. Katherine Ellena is the senior global legal advisor for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. Amina Kator-Mubarez is a faculty associate at the Naval Postgraduate School for the Global ECCO (Education Community Collaboration Online) Project, sponsored by the Combatting Terrorism Irregular Warfare Fellowship Program under the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
In this interesting study Michael Freeman focuses on the 'supply side' of ideology, specifically on the deliberate dissemination of Islamist ideologies (and associated institutional infrastructures) by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States to various countries outside of the Arab world (Indonesia, Pakistan, the UK, and the U.S.). In his conclusion he surveys possible countermeasures that might be employed to block the supply chain of Islamist ideology and thereby inhibit further radicalization and a potential shift toward more jihadist violence, though he ruefully recognizes that the Islamist ideological genie cannot be stuffed back into its magic lamp and that 'the aspects that most need to be addressed are nearly impossible to change.' --Jeffrey M. Bale, professor of nonproliferation and terrorism studies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies --Jeffrey M. Bale (3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM) A compelling and incisive analysis of how Saudi Arabia has spread an extreme version of Islam to Indonesia, Pakistan, Britain, the United States, and other countries that should make policymakers rethink the free pass they have consistently given to the Saudis. --Phil Williams, professor of international security, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh --Philip Williams (3/9/2020 12:00:00 AM)