Global Threats and Trends: Surveying a Landscape of Danger, Risk, and Opportunity

Thomas Sanderson directs the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Transnational Threats Project, where he investigates terrorism, transnational crime, global trends, and intelligence issues. He has conducted field research in more than 70 countries and has authored or co-authored 15 reports, as well as opinion pieces, debates, and articles in The Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, West Point Counterterrorism Center Sentinel, and Harvard Asia-Pacific Review. He engages a variety of sources including journalists, terrorists, traffickers, foreign intelligence officials, business leaders, nongovernmental organizations, clergy, and academia.

Sanderson led a multiphase study of emerging trends in terrorism covering South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa through 2015. He has also co-directed an al Qaeda study and numerous studies on Central Asia. From 2004 to 2009, he directed studies on violent extremism in Europe and Southeast Asia.

He also serves as a course instructor and consultant for the U.S. government and the private sector on terrorism, geopolitics, and global threats and often provides expert commentary for the media and courts of law. From 1998 to 2002, he worked for Science Applications International Corporation, conducting research on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism for the Defense Intelligence Agency's Office of Counterterrorism.

Thomas Sanderson is the Spring 2016 speaker for Res Publica Society Speaker Series.