Scott Allan is a Senior Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, where he hosts the Terrorism Transforming podcast and teaches counterterrorism at the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. He was one of the country's longest serving counterterrorism policy officials and worked as the Senior Strategist for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Counterterrorism focusing on long-term terrorism trends from 2015-2025. In this capacity he has assisted multiple White House administrations in developing their national counterterrorism strategies. Prior to that, he served as the White House Counterterrorism Director for South Asia on the National Security Council Staff (2014-2015) focusing on al-Qa`ida's Senior Leadership and threats emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Scott has also worked as the Senior Regional Advisor for South Asia in the State Department's Bureau for Counterterrorism (2007-2014) and with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's "S/RAP Expanded Team" focusing on Pakistani terrorism. Prior to the State Department, Scott worked as a corporate lawyer in New York (1998-2002), Special Counsel to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke (2002-2003), Counsel to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (2004-2006), and as a law clerk to the United Nations' War Crimes Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (1998). Scott was also a Counsel for the U.S. Government's 9/11 Commission where he researched and drafted the Afghanistan and Pakistan portions of the investigation's final report. Scott has lectured on al-Qa`ida's senior leadership and South Asian counterterrorism issues to students and foreign counterterrorism officials. He is a graduate of Georgetown University (BA 1995) and the Duke University School of Law (JD 1999). Additionally, Scott is a former Council on Foreign Relations' Term Member (2003-2008) and Junior Advisory Board Member of the Asia Society (2006-2009). In his free time Scott enjoys fly-fishing, competitive sailing, and watching college basketball.
The Jamestown Foundation welcomes original, analytically driven submissions. Please review our editorial standards and publication specific formats below before submitting your article for consideration.
