In this great interview from New Books in National Security, Omar Ashour, author of How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt, talks to host Jeffrey Bristol about his work.
They discuss the origin of Ashour’s study and how ISIS franchises spread. The interview also explores the potential threats of ISIS as an international terrorist organisation and why it grew as quickly as it did. They also look ahead to what the future might hold for ISIS.
Find out more about the interview over on New Books Network, or listen below:
13.5 – John Holmwood – New Books in National Security
In this episode, Claudia Radiven and Saeed Khan spoke with Professor John Holmwood about the UK’s Prevent policy, part of the Counter Terror Strategy concerned with radicalisation. We discussed the trajectory of Prevent from its beginnings where it focussed on community cohesion, to changes between 2011 and 2015 after the Trojan Horse Scandal in Birmingham, to the recent review by William Shawcross in 2023. Professor Holmwood is an emeritus professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham, whose work has focussed on colonialism, modern social theory, religion and schooling. With Therese O’Toole he wrote the book ‘Countering Extremism in British Schools? The Truth about the Birmingham Trojan Horse Affair’ and he has worked with the organisation Prevent Watch, a community initiative supporting those affected by Prevent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security
- 13.5 – John Holmwood
- John Jackson, "Special Advocates in the Adversarial System" (Routledge, 2020)
- Martin Moore and Thomas Colley, "Dictating Reality: The Global Battle to Control the News" (Columbia UP, 2025)
- Kate Epstein on How Twentieth-Century Technology Theft Built the National-Security State" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
- Nathan E. Sanders and Bruce Schneier, "Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship" (MIT Press, 2025)
About the Author
Omar Ashour is an Associate Professor of Security and Military Studies and the Founding Chair of the Critical Security Studies Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is the author of How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt (Edinburgh University Press, 2021) as well as the editor of Bullets to Ballots: Collective De-Radicalisation of Armed Movements (Edinburgh University Press, 2021).
