Terrorism Research Initiative Pakistan

With 16 research institutions and more than 120 individual scholars from more than 30 countries in its ranks, the Terrorism Research Initiative (TRI) constitutes one of the largest research consortia in the field of Terrorism Studies in the world. Founded in 2007, TRI’s mission is to enhance security through collaborative research.

It does so by facilitating cooperative efforts among scholars from a broad range of disciplines and backgrounds. The Initiative brings together individual and institutional research efforts, enabling knowledge accumulation in order to suggest policy-relevant courses of action on security issues related to terrorism.


TRI's leadership and staff are based on both sides of the Atlantic. Its European offices are in Vienna, Austria, while its American headquarters are at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell Campus.

The goal

To improve the quality of research and to assist PhD students to reach a level of excellence which they might not be able to reach without our support through networking and fostering collaboration among participants.

Mission statement 

TRI mission statement is simple: Enhance security through collaborative research.

Leadership and Staff

TRI Leadership

  • Alex P. Schmid, TRI Director
  • James J. F. Forest, TRI Director
  • Robert Wesley, TRI Director

TRI Staff and Affiliates

  • Robert Wesley, President, Founding Editor of Perspectives on Terrorism
  • Alex P. Schmid, Editor-in-Chief of  Perspectives on Terrorism
  • James J. F. Forest, Co-Editor of Perspectives on Terrorism
  • Joseph J. Easson, Associate Editor of  Perspectives on Terrorism
  • Joshua Sinai, Book Reviews Editor of  Perspectives on Terrorism
  • Eric Price, Editorial Assistant of  Perspectives on Terrorism
  • Judith Tinnes, Editorial Assistant of  Perspectives on Terrorism
  • Charlotte Spencer-Smith, Research Associate
  • NicoPrucha, Research Associate
  • Philipp Holtmann, Research Associate
  • IoannisMantzikos, Research Assistant
  • Donald Stewart, Research Assistant
  • SuzzetteAbbasciano, Research Assistant
  • Robert Kerins, Research Assistant

TRI International Advisory Board

  • Adam Dolnik is a Professor at the University of Wollongong, Australia.
  • Javier Jordán is a Professor at the Universidad de Granada, Spain.
  • Gary LaFree is a Professor of Criminology at the University of Maryland and the Director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).
  • David Rapoport is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at UCLA, a Mellon Foundation Emeritus Fellow, Founding and Co-Editor of the journal Terrorism and Political Violence.
  • Marc Sageman is a Consultant on transnational terrorism with various governmental agencies and foreign governments and the author of Understanding Terror Networks and Leaderless Jihad.
  • Michael Scheuer served in the CIA for 22 years where he was the Chief of the bin Laden Unit at the Counterterrorist Center from 1996 to 1999.
  • Yoram Schweitzer is a Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and Lecturer at Tel Aviv University.
  • Michael S. Stohl is Professor of Communication at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB).
  • Jeff Victoroff is an Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology and Psychiatry at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.
  • Peter Waldmann is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Augsburg, Germany, and a long time member of the Advisory Board of the German Ministry of Development.
  • Leonard Weinberg is Foundation Professor of Political Science at the University of Nevada.

The Consortium of participating institutions include

  1. Center on Terrorism, John Jay College, USA.
  2. Centre for Terrorism and Counterterrorism (CTC) at Campus The Hague of Leiden University, Netherlands.
  3. (Handa) Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV), University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
  4. Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention (CTCP), University of Wollongong, Australia.
  5. Consortium for Strategic Communication, Arizona State University, USA.
  6. Defense & Strategic Studies Department, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
  7. Department of International Relations, University of Minas (PUC), Brazil.
  8. Global Terrorism Research Centre (GTReC), Monash University, Australia.
  9. International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), Singapore.
  10. Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, Syracuse University, USA.
  11. The Institute of International and European Affairs, (IIEA), Dublin, Ireland, with a branch in Brussels.
  12. Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), Islamabad, Pakistan.
  13. Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS), Athens, Greece.
  14. Research Unit, Political Violence, Terrorism and Radicalization, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Denmark.