Alexander Hamilton Society Event

Mary Habeck and Brian Fishman

"What is the Future of Al Qaeda?"

Moderated by Peter Mansoor, Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair in Military History, The Ohio State University

Wednesday, April 11, 2012
5:30 p.m.
Mershon Center for International Security Studies
1501 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 43201

This event is organized by the Alexander Hamilton Society.
For more information, contact Will Chou at chou.153@osu.edu

Mary Habeck is associate professor in strategic studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she teaches courses on military history and strategic thought. Before coming to SAIS, Habeck taught American and European military history in Yale's history department from 1994 to 2005. She received her PhD in history from Yale in 1996, an MA in international relations from Yale in 1989, and a BA in international studies, Russian, and Spanish from Ohio State in 1987.

Habeck was appointed by President Bush to the Council on the Humanities at the National Endowment for the Humanities (2006-12), and in 2008-09 was the special advisor for strategic planning on the National Security Council staff.

In addition to books and articles on doctrine, World War I, the Spanish Civil War, and al-Qaeda, her publications include Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror (Yale, 2005) and two forthcoming sequels, Attacking America: How Salafi Jihadis Are Fighting Their 200-Year War with the U.S. (2011) and Fighting the Enemy: The U.S. and its War against the Salafi Jihadis (2013).

Brian Fishman is a counterterrorism research fellow at the New America Foundation and a research fellow with the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.  He previously served as the CTC's director of research and was a professor of social sciences at West Point.  Fishman was a regular contributor to the CTC's Harmony Project reports; he authored Dysfunction and Decline: Lessons Learned from Inside al-Qa'ida in Iraq, co-authored al-Qa'ida’s Foreign Fighters in Iraq: A First Look at the Sinjar Records, and edited Bombers, Bank Accounts, and Bleedout: al-Qa'ida's Road In and Out of Iraq.  As part of his duties at West Point, Fishman deployed to Iraq and served on the CENTCOM Assessment Team. Fishman was a founding editor of the CTC Sentinel. 

Before joining the CTC in 2005, Fishman was the foreign affairs/defense legislative assistant for Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (CA-6).  He worked extensively on the Middle East peace process, proliferation, Chinese human rights, and landmine and UXO cleanup.  Fishman has published in the Washington Quarterly, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and numerous edited volumes. 

Fishman has appeared in numerous national and international media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, PBS' Bill Moyers Journal, National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, and Fox News. He holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University and a B.A. from the University of California Los Angeles.

AHS Suggested Reading Materials:
"Al Qaeda on the Ropes" by Brian Fishman
"Evaluating the war with al Qaeda" by Mary Habeck
"What does Al Qaeda want?" by Mary Habeck

Mary Habeck
Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)

Brian Fishman
Counterterrorism Research Fellow
New America Foundation