Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism

CTEC honors and remembers our friend and colleague, Mike Donnelly. His contributions to the Center and to MIIS will never be forgotten. If you would like to learn more about the Michael Donnelly CTEC Research Fellowship, click here.

Formerly known as the Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program, CTEC collaborates with world-renowned faculty and their graduate students in the Middlebury Institute’s Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies degree program.

Our research informs private, government, and multilateral institutional understanding of and responses to terrorism threats. CTEC is a mixed-methods research center, meaning that our experts and students use analytic tradecraft, data science, and linguistics. We mentor our students and the wider MIIS community on skills that are in demand from government agencies, international organizations, technology companies, and financial institutions.

While CTEC is affiliated with MIIS’s Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies (NPTS) department, we also employ faculty and students from across MIIS and Middlebury College.

CTEC’s work is made possible by research grants and gifts from supporters. We appreciate your generosity. Make an online donation to CTEC today.

Areas of Focus

In studying terrorism, other forms of extremism, and state sponsors of terrorism, CTEC’s focus is on six crucial areas:

Militant Accelerationism

• CTEC’s Accelerationism Threat Assessment and Research Initiative is one of the first academic initiatives specifically focused on the threat posed by militant accelerationism. 
• CTEC is a founding member of the Accelerationism Research Consortium, a collaborative network of individuals and organizations working to prevent accelerationist terrorism. 

Online Extremism

• CTEC analyzes an array of media platforms to better understand how extremist messaging motivates individuals to carry out acts of violence. CTEC’s research on terrorist use of the Internet enhances both public and private-sector understanding of terrorist recruitment and fundraising.
• CTEC partners with technology companies to assist in developing better, more contextual, and more flexible policies and tools to handle online extremist content. Read more about our partnership with Spectrum Labs here.

Threat Finance and Sanctions

• Working with the Institute’s Financial Crime Management program, CTEC studies and provides expert policy guidance on terrorism, criminal, and nonproliferation-related financing. In addition to counterterrorism financing and counterproliferation financing investigations and regulatory compliance, CTEC’s research highlights cases of sanctions evasion and examines the efficacy of terrorism-related sanctions imposed multilaterally by the U.S. government and other governments.
• In collaboration with fintech and cryptocurrency companies, CTEC undertakes in-depth research to understand the use of online fundraising platforms and methods by terrorists and extremists.

Asymmetric Conflict

• The Special Operations Research Database is housed at CTEC, and our research on the use of special operation forces to counter violent actors informs public understanding.

Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism

• Digital literacy is a critical component in the fight against radicalization and extremism, and CTEC works to build educational capacity in local communities for digital literacy skills.
• CTEC also works with practitioners and experts in P/CVE to understand and improve on prevention and reintegration efforts for extremists and terrorists.
• Awarded a grant from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, CTEC is currently working with the iThrive Games Foundation to build an innovative games-based curriculum to help build resilience to violent radicalization in high schools.

Emerging Technologies

• CTEC’s focus on mixed-methods analysis allows us to stay at the bleeding edge of new technologies like artificial intelligence in order to understand implications and consequences. Read more about CTEC’s partnership with OpenAI here.

Education

CTEC is integrated into the curriculum of several Middlebury Institute degree and certificate programs, giving students opportunities to gain real-world work experience as paid research assistants: 

• MA in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies
• Financial Crime Management
• Terrorism Studies Certificate