Dr Edward Lemon has published an article entitled “Extremism Trends in Tajikistan” in European Eye on Radicalization. In the article, Dr. Lemon discusses the terrorist threat in Tajikistan in the aftermath of an Islamic State attack in July which left four tourists dead. A DMGS-Kennan Institute Fellow at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School, Dr. Lemon brings with him knowledge of authoritarian governance, religion, security, and migration in Eurasia. Based on over six years of research on extremism in Tajikistan, Dr. Lemon highlights the main patterns in the recruitment of citizens to terrorist groups and outlines the main threats to security going forward: homegrown radicalization and the diversion of foreign fighters from the Middle East to neighboring Afghanistan.
Dr. Lemon writes, “The government of Tajikistan claims that since 2011, 1,899 citizens have joined terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, with most choosing Islamic State. A further 2,615 were stopped while trying to cross the Turkish-Syrian border. This record would make Tajikistan one of the world’s largest per capita producers of foreign fighters, on a par with Tunisia and Jordan. Tajikistan also tops the list of foreign fighter suicide bombings by Islamic State.”
Established in early 2018, European Eye on Radicalization draws attention to current dynamics of extremism and terrorism in Europe and its neighboring regions. It offers a platform for top terrorism scholars from across the globe to publish short analytical articles about their latest research and respond to current events.
Like all our faculty, Dr. Lemon’s expertise benefits our students by allowing them to hear insight from an active practitioner, who remains on top of the latest developments in the subjects he teaches. Our program chairs, professors, and adjunct faculty have extensive and successful backgrounds in national security. DMGS provides unique academic training that helps students to understand international security challenges from regions across the globe.
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Edward Lemon, Ph.D. is the DMGS-Kennan Institute Fellow at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School.
Between September 2016 and August 2018, Dr. Lemon was a Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. He gained his PhD in international studies from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom in 2016.
