William McCants

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Director, U.S. Relations with the Islamic World | Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy

William McCants is a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University and has served in government and think tank positions related to Islam, the Middle East, and terrorism, including as State Department senior adviser for countering violent extremism. He is the author of "Founding Gods, Inventing Nations: Conquest and Culture Myths from Antiquity to Islam" (Princeton University Press, 2011) and "The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State" (St. Martin's Press, 2015). | View Full Bio

  • "The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State" by William McCants

    Featured Book

    The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State

    2015, William McCants

    Based almost entirely on primary sources in Arabic-including ancient religious texts and secret al-Qaeda and Islamic State letters that few outsiders have seen—"The ISIS Apocalypse" explores how religious fervor, strategic calculation, and doomsday prophesy shaped the Islamic State's past and foreshadow its dark future.


    “Every policymaker and any concerned citizen who wants to understand the rise of ISIS should read this insightful and essential book by one of our greatest scholars of Islamist movements.” -- Lawrence Wright, author, "THIRTEEN DAYS IN SEPTEMBER: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David"

  • Essay

    The believer: How Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became leader of the Islamic State

    September 1, 2015, William McCants

Recent Activity

Refine by: ISIS (Islamic State) | Islamic World | Terrorism | Islamist Movements

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Expert Information

Contact

Email Will McCants

202.797.6103 — Media Inquiries

Resources

Experience

Current Positions

  • Adjunct Faculty, Krieger School, Johns Hopkins University
  • Senior Fellow, Homeland Security Policy Institute, George Washington University

Past Positions

  • Research Scientist, Center for Naval Analyses
  • Senior Adviser to Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Department of State
  • Program Manager, Minerva Initiative for the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Department of Defense
  • Research Member, Institute for Defense Analyses
  • Senior Analyst, SAIC
  • Fellow, Combating Terrorism Center, West Point
  • Adjunct Faculty, New Brunswick Seminary

Education

  • M.A. and Ph.D., Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
  • M.A., Near Eastern Studies, University of Arizona
  • B.S., History, Lander University

Language Fluency

  • Arabic
  • English
  • Persian

In the News

"I'm confident that the Islamic State's government in Syria and Iraq will crumble. No modern jihadist statelet has provoked international intervention and survived."

Source: Vox

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William McCants

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