Rohan Gunaratna, Ph.D.

Rohan Gunaratna is Professor of Security Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technology University where he formerly headed the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research. He received his Master’s from the University of Notre Dame in the U.S. where he was Hesburgh Scholar and his doctorate from the University of St Andrews in the UK where he was British Chevening Scholar.

A former Senior Fellow at the Combating Terrorism Centre at the United States Military Academy at West Point and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Gunaratna was invited to testify on the structure of al Qaeda before the 9/11 Commission. The author of 16 books including “Inside al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror” (University of Columbia Press), Gunaratna edited the ten-volume Insurgency and Terrorism Series for the Imperial College Press, London, including the “Handbook of Terrorism in the Asia-Pacific.”

A trainer for national security agencies, law enforcement authorities and military counter-terrorism units, Gunaratna interviewed terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and other conflict zones. Admiral William McRaven appointed him to the International Senior Advisory Panel (ISAP) of the U.S. Special Operations Command in 2013. Gunaratna received the Major General Ralph H. Van Deman Award for advancing international security cooperation in June, 2014.