Book Rap: Jessica Stern & J.M. Berger "ISIS: The State of Terror"

Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger, two of America’s leading experts on violent extremism and terrorism, will discuss their book "ISIS: The State of Terror."

Tickets are $5 NPC members; $10 public. NPC members should login for the promo code.

The event includes a discussion, Q&A from the audience, and book signing. This event is a fundraiser for the nonprofit NPC Journalism Institute. No outside books or memorabilia permitted. All sales are final; no refunds will be issued.

Drawing on their unusual access to intelligence sources and material, law enforcement, and groundbreaking research into open source intelligence, Stern and Berger explain the genesis, evolution, and implications of the terror group known as ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant—and how we can fight it.

Though terrorist groups are a fixture of contemporary politics and warfare, the world has never witnessed the degree of brutality demonstrated by ISIS. Its sophisticated use of social media, acquisition of territory, and ability to attract foreign fighters—many from modern Western democracies—is unprecedented.

"ISIS: The State of Terror" offers ideas on potential government responses—emphasizing that we must alter our present conceptions of terrorism and terrorists and react to the rapidly changing jihadi landscape, both online and off, as quickly as the terrorists do.

Jessica Stern is a lecturer on terrorism at Harvard University and a fellow at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard's School of Public Health. She is a member of the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law, and served on the Clinton administration's National Security Council staff. She is the author of "Denial: A Memoir of Terror"; "Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill" (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year); and "The Ultimate Terrorists."

J.M. Berger is a nonresident fellow with the Brookings Institution and the author of "Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam," a critically acclaimed history of the American jihadist movement. He is a regular contributor to Foreign Policy magazine, and his website, Intelwire.com, has published thousands of declassified documents on the September 11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing.