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(202) 433-9654
Areas of Expertise: Insurgency & Irregular Warfare/CT; Middle East and North Africa
R. Kim Cragin is the senior research fellow for counterterrorism at the National Defense University. She recently left a position as political scientist at the RAND Corporation and also has taught as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland. Cragin focuses on terrorism-related issues. In the spring of 2008, she spent three months on General Petraeus' (ret.) staff in Baghdad. In addition to Iraq, Cragin has conducted fieldwork in Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt, northwest China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, among others. Her RAND publications include Severing the Ties that Bind (2015), Social Science for Counter-Terrorism (2010), Sharing the Dragon's Teeth (2007) and Terrorism and Development (2003). Cragin also has published academic articles, including "Resisting Violent Extremism" in the reviewed journal Terrorism and Political Violence (2013), "al-Qa'ida Confronts Hamas" in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (2009), and "The Early History of al-Qa'ida" in the Historical Journal (2008). Her book entitled Women as Terrorists: Mothers, Recruiters, and Martyrs was released by Praeger in 2009. Cragin has a masters degree from the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. She completed her Ph.D. at Cambridge University (Clare College) in the United Kingdom.
Recent Publications
- 2017. R. Kim Cragin, "The November 2015 Paris Attacks: The Impact of Foreign Fighter Returnees," Orbis, Spring 2017.
- 2017. Marcellino, William, Kim Cragin and Joshua Mendelsohn et al, “Measuring the Popular Resonance of Daesh’s Propaganda,” Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol 10, No. 1. March.
- 2017. Davis, Lynn, Jeffrey Martini, and Kim Cragin, “A Strategy to Counter ISIL as a Transregional Threat,” RAND Perspective, Santa Monica, RAND Corporation.
- 2017. Cragin, R. Kim and Phillip Padilla, “Old Becomes New Again: Kidnappings by Daesh and other Salafi Jihadists in the 21st Century,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, accepted manuscript.
- 2016. Cragin, R. Kim, “Countering Terrorism,” in R.D. Hooker Jr (ed) Charting a Course: Strategic Choices for a New Administration, Washington DC, NDU Press.
- 2016. Cragin, R. Kim et al, What Factors Cause Individuals to Reject Violent Extremism? Results of an Exploratory Analysis in the West Bank, Santa Monica, RAND Corporation
- 2015. Cragin, Kim, “Semi-Proxy Wars and U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 38:5, pp. 311-327.
- 2014. Cragin, Kim, “A Recent History of al-Qa’ida,” The Historical Journal, 67:3 (September 2014), pp. 803-824.
- 2013. Cragin, Kim, “Resisting Violent Extremism: A Conceptual Model for Non-Radicalization,” Terrorism and Political Violence, (December 2013), pp. 337-353.