Are you interested in learning more about ISIL? Al Qaeda? What fuels terrorist organizations, and why terrorism exists?

Join us in the lecture forum (LF-102) at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 30, to learn from seasoned professional, academic and author, David Brannan, Ph.D., and educational design expert and co-author, Kristin Darken, M.A.

David Brannan, Ph.D. 

David Brannan served 12 years in domestic law enforcement, including six years on a SWAT team and experience as an advisor to the Mongolian National Policeis. He moved to Scotland to study in 1996, the same year Osama bin Laden issued his first fatwa against the United States. Bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya would soon follow, as would an attack on the USS Cole in 2000.

Brannan earned his Master's degree and his Ph.D. at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, where he was a Research Associate in the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. His dissertation was titled "Violence, Terrorism and the Role of Theology."

After completing his degrees in Scotland, Dr. Brannan returned to the United States and continued to analyze theologically driven extremism and U.S. policy in the Middle East as an analyst with the RAND Corporation, where he studied terrorism and insurgency for five years before taking up his position at the Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security. While at RAND, he was selected by the Department of Defense to serve as the Director of Security Policy in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, under the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Kristin Darken, M.A.

Kristin Darken is co-founder and Creative Director at Agile Research & Technology, developer of educational experiences for national security analysts and practitioners.  With over a decade of experience and collaboration with faculty and students at the Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security, she has helped faculty to translate complex ideas and theoretical content into significant learning experiences grounded in sound instructional design and learning theory, and she has brought this experience to bear in the design of the MPC web site.

David Brannan, Kristin Darken and Anders Strindberg co-authored A Practitioner's Way Forward: Terrorism Analysis (2014).

Please join us for this exciting and engaging event! All are welcome!