Stephen Tankel

Acting Assistant Professor
Department of Justice, Law and Society

• Stephen Tankel is an Assistant Professor at American University and a non-resident scholar in the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research focuses on terrorism, insurgency, the evolution of violent non-state actors, and political and military affairs in South Asia. Tankel is also an adjunct staff member at the RAND Corporation, where he has contributed to research assessing jihadist ideology and decision-making. Tankel has conducted field research on conflicts and militancy in Algeria, India, Lebanon, Pakistan, and the Balkans. He is frequently asked to brief government officials, analysts, and practitioners on issues relating to jihadist violence and on security issues related to South Asia. Tankel has written extensively on these issues and Columbia University Press recently published his book, Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which examines that group’s ideological, strategic and operational evolution since the 1980s within the context of developments in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.