Marc Sageman

Marc Sageman is an American psychiatrist who is a former CIA Operations Officer (covered as a Foreign Service officer) based in Islamabad from 1987 to 1989, where he worked closely with Afghanistan's mujahedin.

His conclusions have demolished much of the conventional wisdom about who joins jihadi groups.

"[3] In Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century, Sageman "suggests that radicalization is a collective rather than an individual process in which friendship and kinship are key components.

"[2] After the book was negatively reviewed by Bruce Hoffman in Foreign Affairs,[4] a debate,[5] which was covered by The New York Times,[6] ensued between him and Sageman.

Reviewed by Dr Anthony Richards, Royal Holloway College in 'Perspectives on Terrorism' [7]