Victor Asal, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher

Victor Asal is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies. He is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rockefeller College at the University at Albany , SUNY . Dr. Asal is a Research Associate with a focus on Ethnic Terrorism and Mass Casualty Terrorism for the National Center for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). He is also the Director of the Public Security Studies Certificate program at the University of Albany , SUNY and is a Research Associate at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland at College Park .

Dr. Asal received his Ph.D. in Government and Politics (Comparative Politics, Conflict and Conflict Resolution) from the University of Maryland at College Park . He holds M.A.s in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland at College Park and in International Relations (International Relations Theory, International Law) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Asal graduated Magna Cum Laude from Tufts University where he obtained his B.A. in Political Science.

Dr. Asal's research and teaching interests include comparative politics and international relations, ethnic politics and ethnic conflict and terrorism, political inclusion and exclusion, interstate and intrastate conflict and conflict resolution, social movements and contentious politics, and political science pedagogy. His recent publications include the book Mediating International Crises with Kathleen Young, Jonathan Wilkenfeld and David Quinn ( Oxford : Routledge, 2005), and multiple articles, including: “Holy Terror and Mass Killings? Reexamining the Motivations and Methods of Mass Casualty Terrorists,” (with Andrew Blum), International Studies Review 7:11 (2005). “Researching Terrorist Networks” (With R. Karl Rethemeyer) Journal of Security Education . (Forthcoming), and “Terrorist Transnational Terrorist Networks” with Brian Nussbaum and William Harrington - Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (Forthcoming).

Dr. Asal is also the Co-Designer and Developer of the Minorities at Risk Organizational Behavior Database. This project, which codes all organizations claiming to represent MAR groups for their Organizational Behavior, including terrorist actions, is funded through the National Center for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.