William Braniff
William Braniff is the Executive Director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). He previously served as the director of practitioner education at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) and an instructor in the Department of Social Sciences. Braniff is a graduate of the United States Military Academy. Following his Company Command as an Armor Officer in the U.S. Army, Braniff attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) where he received a master’s degree in international relations. Upon graduation, Braniff served as a foreign affairs specialist for the National Nuclear Security Agency. He lectures frequently for counterterrorism audiences and programs including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joint Special Operations University, National Defense University. Braniff has also taken a keen interest in the field of countering violent extremism (CVE). He has consulted with the Department of Justice, the FBI and the National Security Staff, playing a key role in an inter-agency working group dedicated to the topic and speaking at the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism in February 2015. His research focuses on domestic and international terrorism, counterterrorism and countering violent extremism.
The United States National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism is built on a comprehensive threat assessment of domestic terrorism as ordered by President Biden, and prioritises far-right extremism. Although the conceptualisation contains certain flaws, the strategy acknowledges this rising threat in a comprehensive and evidence-based assessment. In this Policy Brief, we highlight the US Strategy […]
Counter-Terrorism After 9/11 is a podcast series exploring how counter-terrorism has changed in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. In our second episode, we speak to Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism. This interview explores critical […]
On 20 February 2020, a remarkable article by Sirajuddin Haqqani appeared in The New York Times. Coming just days before the signing by the United States and the Taliban movement of a bilateral ‘Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan’, the essay was full of beautiful thoughts: ‘Everyone has lost somebody they loved. Everyone is tired […]