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.
Anjem Choudary, once accused of “poisoning the minds of the vulnerable” was released on licence from Belmarsh prison on Friday, 19 October. Prior to his conviction, Choudary and his extremist groups were thought to have influenced at least 100 people from Britain to pursue terrorist activities. His notoriety at the time was such that he […]
In light of the territorial demise of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, this report analyses the continued risks posed by IS. Given that IS is playing a long game, the report calls upon policymakers to keep up the counter-terrorism pressure, to sidestep policy fatigue at all costs to avoid undoing years of […]
Introduction Virtual currencies (VCs), including cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, have gained considerable popularity over the past several years. Although VCs have many potential uses in everyday life, they often carry an association with illicit transactions such as purchasing illegal drugs on Dark Web marketplaces or in ransomware attacks such as WannaCry, which affected companies and […]