John Horgan

John Horgan

Horgan's profile on the University of St Andrews website, showing that he sits on the expert group

John Horgan is an expert on the psychology of terrorism. He is based at Penn State University in the United States where he is Director of the International Center for the Study of Terrorism (ICST). Horgan was previously a Senior Research Fellow at CSTPV and taught several courses at St. Andrews including Terrorism and Liberal Democracy with Paul Wilkinson.

Career

Horgan received his PhD from University College, Cork in 2000 where he went on to teach Forensic Psychology at the Department of Applied Psychology. While based in Ireland, he conducted research on the activities of the Irish Republican movement, and in particular published a series of noted articles on the fundraising operations of the Provisional IRA. In 2005 he joined the School of International Relations at St. Andrew’s University as a lecturer and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. In July 2006, was awarded a Research Fellowship by the Airey Neave Trust for a project on individual disengagement from radical and extremist movements (2006-2008). The results of this study will be published in a book Walking Away from Terrorism in 2008, by Routledge. On 1 November 2007 Horgan became the new Director of the International Center for the Study of Terrorism (ICST), a terrorism research centre based at Penn State University.

Horgan is a member of the Editorial Boards of the journals Terrorism and Political Violence, Terrorism Research, and the Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling. Horgan was also a former member of the European Commission Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation whilst he was at St Andrew, but resigned from the group on 29 October 2007, just days before he took up his new post at ICST.

Books

• Horgan, J. Walking Away from Terrorism: Accounts of Disengagement from Radical and Extremist Movements (London: Routledge, in press)

• Bjorgo, T. and Horgan, J. (Eds) Leaving Terrorism Behind: Individual and Collective Perspectives (in preparation)

• Horgan, J. The Psychology of Terrorism (London: Routledge, 2005)

• Taylor, M. and Horgan J. (Eds.) The Future of Terrorism (London: Frank Cass, 2000)

Recent Presentations

• 15 March 2007. Understanding the Terrorist: From Profiling to Pathways. Fred J. Hansen Distinguished Lecture Series, Charles Hostler Institute on World Affairs, San Diego State University.

• 25 January 2007. The Radicalisation Process. Presented at the FFI – Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, Oslo.

• 7-8 January 2007. The Future of Terrorism. Presented at the Senior Command Staff School, Irish Defence Forces Training Centre, The Curragh, Co. Kildare.

• 10-12 December 2006. Defusing Suicide Bombers: Towards a Psychological Operations Initiative for Counterterrorism. Presented at Suicide Bombers: The Psychological, Religious and Other Imperatives NATO Advanced Research Workshop, University of Cambridge.

• 10 November 2006. Terrorism and Radicalisation. Address to the Open Association, University of St. Andrews.

• 3 November 2006. Delineating Motivational Aspects of Suicide Bombers. Presented at the Understanding Suicide Terrorism Conference Series, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Whitehall, London.

• 27 October 2006. Terrorism Studies and Public Policy. Presented at the Economic and Social Research Council Workshop on Critical Terrorism Studies, University of Manchester.

• 8-10 October 2006. Towards a Psycho-Political Theory of Terrorism. Presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on the Psychology of Terrorism. Pennsylvania State University.

• 15 September 2006. A Model of Radicalization: Perspectives from Psychology and International Relations. The Psychology of Terrorism II Conference. University of East London.

• 14 September 2006. Terrorism in Europe: Current and Future Directions. Inaugural Address of the University of St. Andrews Alumni Club, London.

• 22 July 2006. Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Obstacles, and Opportunities. Keynote Address, Summer Workshop on Teaching of Terrorism (SWOTT) 2. University of Georgia, Athens.

• 12 June 2006. The Psychology of Terrorism. Presented at Summer Workshop on Teaching of Terrorism (SWOTT) 1, College of William and Mary, Williamsburgh, Virginia.

• 12 May 2006. The Future of Terrorism, Presented to Senior Officer Corps, Command Staff Course, Military College, Curragh, Co. Kildare, Ireland.

• 27-28 April 2006. The Psychological Profile of UK Jihadis. Presented at the Changing Faces of Jihadism Conference, King’s College, London.

• 31 March, 2006. The Psychology of Terrorism. Presented at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York.

• 14 March, 2006. Disengagement from Terrorism. Presented at European Commission Expert Panel Seminar on Violent Radicalisation, Trier, Germany.

• 7-8 March, 2006. Involvement, Engagement, and Disengagement: Understanding the Psychology of Terrorism. Presented at Institute for Criminology, University of Cambridge.

• 9-12 January 2006. Understanding Initial Involvement in Terrorism and Implications for Counterterrorism. Presented at Current and Future Trends in Terrorism Conference, University of Haifa, Israel.

• 26 November 2005. Psychological, Behavioural and Ideological Issues in the Radicalisation and Development of the Terrorist. Presented at Religion, Radicalisation and Terror Conference, Welsh Centre for International Affairs and the Department of International Politics, David Davies Memorial Institute and Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Contemporary Political Violence, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

• 8-11 October 2005. Understanding Terrorism: Historical, Geopolitical and Definitional Aspects. Presented at the EURESTE and Belgian Red Cross Conference on Psychosocial Resources for Victims of Terrorism, Brussels.

• 21-23 October 2005. Disengagement from Terrorism. Presented at the RAND Centre for Middle East Public Policy Conference on Positive Options from Deterring Youth from Radicalism, Washington D.C.

• 20 May 2005. Understanding the Psychologies of Terrorists. Presented at The Psychology of Terrorism Conference, School of Law, University of East London.

• 24-27 March 2005. The Provisional IRA in 2005: The Final Moments of an Increasingly Irrelevant Movement? Presented at International Workshop on Global Terror and the Imagination, University of Pittsburgh.

• 23 March 2005. Understanding Terrorist Motivation: The Role of the Socio-Psychological Perspective. Presented at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Stockholm.

• 22 March 2005. Understanding Terrorist Motivation: The Role of the Socio-Psychological Perspective. Presented at Initial State of the Art Review of Research on Terrorism and Counterterrorism, Swedish National Defence College, Stockholm.

• 18-21 November 2004. Terrorism and Forensic Psychology. Presented at the 21st Century Directions for Forensic Psychology Seminar, Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) Annual Conference, Cork. (Also served as Chair of this workshop).