Professor Scott Atran, a Presidential Scholar in Sociology, recently co-authored an op-ed in The New York Times titled “The Kurds’ Heroic Stand Against ISIS.”  Professor Atran and his co-author, retired U.S. Marine Corps Major General Douglas M. Stone, worked with ARTIS Research & Risk Modeling – a  multidisciplinary institution that uses social science research to resolve intergroup violence – to interview Kurds fighting the Islamic State in Iraq as well as Islamic State fighters captured by the Kurds. The authors, who travelled to the front lines of the conflict in Kirkuk, indicate that “the Kurds demonstrate a will to fight that matches the Islamic State’s. The United States needs to help them win.”

To read the New York Times article, click here.

Professor Atran is acknowledged as a leading expert on suicide terrorism and Al Qaeda. He is the author of Talking to the Enemy: The (Un)Making of Terrorists, among many other books. In addition to his scholarly work at John Jay, he is Director of Research in Anthropology at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, and Visiting Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at the University of Michigan.