International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence

<youtube size="medium" align="right" caption="About the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence">pa9GU6o18CU</youtube> The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ISCR) is a terrorism research institute based at King's College London. It is a collaboration between King's College, the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel and the Regional Center on Conflict Prevention in Jordan. It is headed by the King's College terrorism expert Peter Neumann.

Origins, history and launch

ISCR was launched in January 2008 but appears to have been planned at least by early 2007. Its website was registered on 16 April 2007 and it was registered as a UK company limited by guarantee (i.e. without shares) on 28 August 2007. The first press reference to ISCR is an article in The Times Higher Education Supplement on 23 November 2007.

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith sets out the Government's new initiative in a speech to the conference

ISCR's was launched at a conference in London which it called the 'First International Conference on Radicalisation and Political Violence'. The conference, which took place on 17 and 18 January 2008, attracted controversy over a month earlier when it was revealed that Avi Dichter, the former head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, had planned to attend, but that Israel's foreign and justice ministries had advised him not to in case he was arrested for alleged war crimes. Dichter headed Shin Beth when it helped plan the assassination of Hamas military commander Saleh Shehada in July 2002. The operation killed Shehada's wife and nine children. That early report aside, the most newsworthy aspect of the event was a speech by the UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on the morning of the first day launching the government's new anti-terror intiative. Speaking to the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme before her speech, Smith said there were specific examples of websites that "clearly fall under the category of gratifying terrorism" and that, "There is growing evidence people may be using the internet both to spread messages and to plan specifically for terrorism."

A panel at the conference featuring (from left to right) Daniel Benjamin, Sadig Al-Mahdi, Nick Fielding, Richard Dearlove and Frank Gardner.

The government's new initiative coincided with ISCR's first major research 'Countering Online Radicalisation', and no doubt ISCR's launch and the launch of the government's new terrorism initiative were deliberately timed.

Other keynote speakers at the event included US Senator Chuck Hagel, the Vice-President of Colombia Francisco Santos Calderon, the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis. Several prominent terrorism experts and commentators featured as panelists including the BBC's Frank Gardner, Olivier Roy, Peter Bergen of the New America Foundation, Richard Dearlove (former head of MI6) and Daniel Benjamin of the Brookings Institution.

Structure and personnel

ICSR's director Peter Neumann

The logos of the four collaborating institutions - King's College London, the University of Pennsylvania, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and the Regional Center on Conflict Prevention.

ICSR was incorporated as a UK company limited by guarantee (i.e. without shares) on 28 August 2007. As of 28 August 2009 ISCR's website states that it is 'currently in the process of being registered as a charity in England and Wales', but is not registered with the Charity Commission. It is headed by the King's College terrorism expert Peter Neumann, who is overseen by four academics representing each of the collaborating institutions and a small board of trustees comprising of figures from government and finance.

Trustees

As of 20 August 2009, the directors of International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence Ltd (essentially the organisation's trustees) were the former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, the former Marks and Spencer executive John Sacher and the American former Wickes executive Henry Sweetbaum, the latter of whom is the organisation's chairman.

Sweetbaum is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, which may explain his involvement. Kim Campbell is Secretary General of the Club de Madrid which organised the 'International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security' in 2005, for which ICSR's director Peter Neumann was Academic Director.

Kim Campbell and Henry Sweetbaum were involved from the offset, whilst John Sacher was appointed on 18 January 2008 following the resignation of Stephen Barclay, a Chartered Accountant, financier and a governor of the London School of Economics. Like Sweetbaum, Barclay is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Directors

Name	Correspondence address	Role	Position	Date of birth	Appointed on	Resigned on	Nationality	Country of residence	Occupation
Lord James Nicholas Bethell	Kings College London, Strand Campus, London, United Kingdom, WC2R 2LS	Role Active	Director	October 1967	10 May 2019		British	United Kingdom	Company Director
Avril Phaedra Douglas (Kim) Campbell	Kings College London, Strand Campus, London, United Kingdom, WC2R 2LS	Role Active	Director	March 1947	28 August 2007		Canadian		Politician
Marc William Fleischman	Kings College London, Strand Campus, London, United Kingdom, WC2R 2LS	Role Active	Director	December 1966	31 October 2018		American	Switzerland	Company Director
Sir Lawrence David Freedman	Katie Rothman, King's College London, Icsr, Dept Of War Studies, Strand, London, England, WC2R 2LS	Role Active	Director	December 1948	1 August 2015		British	United Kingdom	Retired/Freelance Writer And Lecturer
Jeremy Michael Sacher	Kings College London, Strand Campus, London, United Kingdom, WC2R 2LS	Role Active	Director	September 1955	4 October 2016		British	England	Retail Consultancy
Patricia Lorna Cullen	59 Gresham Gardens, London, NW11 8PA	Role Resigned	Secretary		28 August 2007	1 September 2010	British
Stephen John Rickatson	Strand Bridge House, Lower Ground Floor, 138-142 Strand, London, WC2R 1HH	Role Resigned	Secretary		1 September 2010	31 July 2014	British
Stephen John Barclay	71 Raynham, Norfolk Crescent, London, W2 2PQ	Role Resigned	Director	April 1942	28 August 2007	15 November 2007	British	England	Company Director
Ambassador Omar Ghobash	Katie Rothman, King's College London, Icsr, Dept Of War Studies, Strand, London, England, WC2R 2LS	Role Resigned	Director	June 1971	1 August 2015	22 August 2017	United Arab Emirates	United Arab Emirates	Diplomat
Dr Azeem Ibrahim	Kings College London, Strand Campus, London, United Kingdom, WC2R 2LS	Role Resigned	Director	March 1976	9 August 2016	23 July 2018	British	Scotland	Company Director
Gretchen King	Kings College London, Strand Campus, London, United Kingdom, WC2R 2LS	Role Resigned	Director	April 1982	31 October 2018	2 February 2021	American	United Arab Emirates	Company Director
Simon John Sacher	16 Clifton Villas, London, W9 2PH	Role Resigned	Director	June 1940	18 January 2008	30 August 2016	British	England	Retired Company Director
The Hon Sir David Daniel Sieff	Icsr, Lower Ground Floor, 138-142 Strand, London, United Kingdom, WC2R 1HH	Role Resigned	Director	March 1939	7 October 2010	7 December 2015	British	United Kingdom	Company Director
Jonathan David Sieff	King's College London, Icsr, Dept Of War Studies, Strand, London, United Kingdom, WC2R 2LS	Role Resigned	Director	June 1966	18 May 2016	12 February 2022	British	United Kingdom	Company Director
Henry Alan Sweetbaum	King's College London, Icsr, Dept Of War Studies, Strand, London, United Kingdom, WC2R 2LS	Role Resigned	Director	November 1937	7 December 2015	26 May 2022	American	United Kingdom	Company Director
Henry Alan Sweetbaum	11 Park Village West, London, NW1 4AE	Role Resigned	Director	November 1937	28 August 2007	7 December 2015	American	United Kingdom	Company Director

Leadership

• Lawrence Freedman; King’s College London
• Boaz Ganor; Interdisciplinary Centre, Herzliya, Israel
• Yasar Qatarneh; Regional Center on Conflict Prevention
• Harvey Rubin; MD, University of Pennsylvania

Staff

• Peter Neumann; Director
• Debbie Berger Fox; CFO and Project Manager
• Marilyn Carsley;Project Assistant
• Dina Esfandiary; Project Assistant
• Jacob Stoil; Operations Manager
• Stephen Tankel; Research Fellow
• Steve Tatham; Associate Fellow

Funding

Donors ranked by amounts 2008-14:

• 1 Atkin Charitable Foundation £907,895
• 2 Wolfson Family Charitable Trust £175,000
• 3 Jeremy and John Sacher Charitable Trust £120,000
• 4 Public Safety Canada £99,763
• 5 Clore Duffield Foundation £75,000
• 6 Community Security Trust/Gerald Ronson Charitable Foundation £62,500
• 7 European Union £60,000
• 8 Smith Richardson Foundation £57,979
• 9 Gerda Henkel Stiftung £57,152
• 10 START, University of Maryland £53,133
• 11 Henry and Annie Sweetbaum £45,151
• 12 Australian High Commission £33,032
• 13 UK Home Office £31,479
• 14 Daniel Peltz Trust £30,000
• 15 National Defense University £28,973
• 16 Netherlands Government £24,707
• 17 Pears Foundation £20,000
• 18 ICNC £16,520
• 19 University of Pennsylvania £13,507
• 20 Rockefeller Foundation £13,237
• 21 Rena and Sami David £12,238
• 22 David Sieff £10,000
• 23 Moss Family Charitable Trust£10,000
• 24 Ahmadiyya Association £9,000
• 25 Alliance and Bernstein £3,500

In addition there were eight redacted donations totalling £122,425.

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

Website www.icsr.info

Resources

• First International Conference on Radicalisation and Political Violence