Terrorexpertise:Major World Newspapers List

Methodology

Below is a table of the 100 Terrorism Experts most prominent in major world newspapers. 437 names were taken from the Bulk List of experts and searched at LexisNexis's Major World Publications group for items published between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2007. The search included each expert’s name as well as any reference to 'terrorism', 'terrorist' or variations of the phrase 'suicide bomb'. The 100 most prolific experts are reproduced in the table below in descending order of the number of items returned. The table also displays the variations of each individual’s name used in the search.

Nine experts though their name returned the requisite number of items were excluded from this list, details of which are included in the Notes section below.

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This list is one of a number compiled including:

Terrorexpertise:Bulk List

Terrorexpertise:Scholar_List

Terrorexpertise:Google Books List

Terrorexpertise:Elite Conference List

Terrorexpertise:The 'Terrorism' Industry List

Terrorexpertise:UK Television List

Terrorism Experts ranked according to number of articles returned

	Name of Expert	Items Returned	Name variations used
1	Mick Keelty	2605	Mick Keelty
2	Richard Clarke	2025	Richard Clarke or Richard A. Clarke
3	Benjamin Netanyahu	1947	Benjamin Netanyahu
4	Peter Clarke	1180	Peter Clarke
5	Rohan Gunaratna	1009	Rohan Gunaratna
6	Noam Chomsky	788	Noam Chomsky
7	Patrick Mercer	681	Patrick Mercer
8	Sidney Jones	610	Sidney Jones
9	Clive Williams	588	Clive Williams
10	Francis Fukuyama	503	Francis Fukuyama
11	Daniel Pipes	486	Daniel Pipes
12	Paul Wilkinson	472	Paul Wilkinson
13	Jason Burke	464	Jason Burke
14	Avi Dichter	453	Avi Dichter
15	Anthony Cordesman	431	Anthony Cordesman
16	Alan Dershowitz	376	Alan Dershowitz
17	Bruce Hoffman	369	Bruce Hoffman
18	Peter Bergen	357	Peter Bergen
19	David Veness	350	David Veness
20	Robert Baer	335	Robert Baer
21	Arnaud de Borchgrave	322	Arnaud de Borchgrave
22	Michael Clarke	311	Michael Clarke
23	Jonathan Evans	311	Jonathan Evans
24	Magnus Ranstorp	310	Magnus Ranstorp
25	Irwin Cotler	293	Irwin Cotler
26	Daniel Benjamin	275	Daniel Benjamin
27	Michael Scheuer	268	Michael Scheuer
28	Zachary Abuza	267	Zachary Abuza
29	David Capitanchik	256	David Capitanchik
30	John Thompson	238	John Thompson
31	Simon Reeve	234	Simon Reeve
32	Wesley Wark	230	Wesley Wark or Wesley K. Wark
33	Frances Townsend	225	Frances Townsend or Fran Townsend
34	David Charters	222	David Charters
35	Kevin Toolis	216	Kevin Toolis
36	Tariq Ramadan	204	Tariq Ramadan
37	Steve Emerson	203	Steve Emerson or Steven emerson
38	Steve Simon	201	Steve Simon or steven simon
39	Paul Beaver	186	Paul Beaver
40	Larry Johnson	184	Larry Johnson or Larry C. Johnson
41	Brian Jenkins	171	Brian Jenkins or Brian Michael Jenkins or Brian M. Jenkins
42	Rita Katz	157	Rita Katz
43	David Wright-Neville	154	David Wright-Neville
44	Olivier Roy	152	Olivier Roy
45	Michael Ledeen	149	Michael Ledeen
46	Robert Pape	149	Robert Pape or Robert A. Pape
47	Lawrence Eagleburger	144	Lawrence Eagleburger
48	Boaz Ganor	144	Boaz Ganor
49	Paul Rogers	142	Paul Rogers
50	Mike Yardley	142	Mike Yardley or Michael Yardley
51	Fouad Ajami	136	Fouad Ajami
52	Paul Pillar	135	Paul Pillar or Paul R. Pillar
53	Conor Cruise O'Brien	134	Conor Cruise O'Brien
54	Jessica Stern	129	Jessica Stern
55	Patrick Clawson	126	Patrick Clawson
56	Graham Allison	124	Graham Allison
57	Michael Osterholm	122	Michael Osterholm or Michael T. Osterholm
58	Peter Power	119	Peter Power
59	John O'Connor	115	John O'Connor
60	Matthew Levitt	104	Matthew Levitt or Matthew A. Levitt
61	Michael McKinley	96	Michael McKinley
62	Mustafa Alani	94	Mustafa Alani
63	Stephen Schwartz	91	Stephen Schwartz
64	Louise Richardson	90	Louise Richardson
65	Evan Kohlmann	89	Evan Kohlmann or Evan F. Kohlmann
66	Anthony Glees	86	Anthony Glees
67	Laurie Mylroie	85	Laurie Mylroie
68	Bruce Riedel	85	Bruce Riedel or Bruce O. Riedel
69	Nick Kaldas	80	Nick Kaldas
70	John Sifton	79	John Sifton
71	Jeane Kirkpatrick	78	Jeane Kirkpatrick
72	Neil Doyle	77	Neil Doyle
73	Donald Henderson	74	Donald Henderson or Donald A. Henderson
74	Jonathan Stevenson	74	Jonathan Stevenson
75	Irwin Redlener	71	Irwin Redlener
76	Charles Pena	65	Charles Pena or Charles V. Pena
77	Dan Plesch	65	Dan Plesch
78	Tara O'Toole	64	Tara O'Toole
79	Michael Walzer	64	Michael Walzer
80	Daniel Byman	63	Daniel Byman
81	Walter Laqueur	62	Walter Laqueur
82	Adam Roberts	60	Adam Roberts
83	Marc Sageman	59	Marc Sageman
84	Jusuf Wanandi	59	Jusuf Wanandi
85	Athol Yates	59	Athol Yates
86	Crispin Black	58	Crispin Black
87	Rachel Ehrenfeld	58	Rachel Ehrenfeld
88	Andrew Lynch	58	Andrew Lynch
89	Rolf Tophoven	56	Rolf Tophoven
90	Alan Krueger	55	Alan Krueger or Alan B. Krueger
91	Roger Cressey	53	Roger Cressey
92	Jack Goldsmith	52	Jack Goldsmith
93	Alex Standish	52	Alex Standish
94	Cass Sunstein	52	Cass Sunstein or Cass R. Sunstein
95	Charles Shoebridge	51	Charles Shoebridge
96	Scott Atran	50	Scott Atran
97	Seth Jones	50	Seth Jones or Seth G. Jones
98	Yonah Alexander	49	Yonah Alexander
99	David Claridge	49	David Claridge
100	Fred Halliday	49	Fred Halliday

Analysis

• A plurality of the experts (43 out of 100) are currently or have previously been a member of state institutions such as government, security or intelligence services, policing or the military. The dominance of the state is even more pronounced if you consider the 20 most prominent experts (who together returned more items than the remaining 80 experts together), 12 of whom have such an affiliation, making up a clear majority of the most influential experts.

• The majority of the experts (52 of the 100) are currently or have previously been members of private think-tanks or research institutes. Of the remaining 48, 28 are currently or have previously worked in private security or intelligence firms, or alternatively state institutions such as government, security or intelligence, policing or the military. Of the remaining 20 ‘independent’ experts, four are British journalists and 16 are current or former academics with no such affiliation. The 16 academics include the prominent critic of Western foreign policy Noam Chomsky, as well as several high profile supporters of state and corporate power such as Francis Fukuyama, Alan Dershowitz, Walter Laqueur, and Fouad Ajami.

• 47 of the 100 experts are currently or have previously held tenure at an institution of higher education. Of those 47, a majority (26) are known to be or have been members of private think-tanks or research institutes.

• A small portion of the experts (15) are current or former journalists. Of those 15, two have been employed in private security or intelligence firms, six have worked for a government, intelligence or law enforcement agency, and five are known to be members of Private Think-Tanks or Research Institutes. The four journalists with no such affiliations are Jason Burke, Simon Reeve, Kevin Toolis and Neil Doyle. The latter although not known to be directly affiliated with any institution is closely association with corporate security.