Nearly a century ago, the Nazis burned the books of Jewish authors. Today, the publishing world is attempting to resurrect the exclusion of writers because of either their faith and nationality or their refusal to conform to a new intellectual diktat.  

Bruce R. Hoffman (born 1954) is an American political analyst. He specializes in the study of terrorism, counter-terrorism, insurgency, and counter-insurgency. Hoffman serves as the Shelby Cullom and Kathryn W. Davis Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security on the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a professor at the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University, where he directs its Center for Jewish Civilization.[1] In addition, he is the Professor Emeritus and Honorary Professor of Terrorism Studies at the University of St Andrews,[2] and is the George H. Gilmore Senior Fellow at the U.S. Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center.[3]

Hoffman began an interest in the study of international relations while an undergraduate at Connecticut College. He received his graduate education at the Oxford University, earning his doctorate in 1986. Hoffman has since held multiple professorships and appointments. In May 2022, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin appointed Hoffman as a commissioner on the Commonwealth of Virginia's Commission to Combat Antisemitism.[4]

Author of "Inside Terrorism"

With the US election next week, we sit down with two of the world's foremost experts on terrorism: Bruce Hoffman, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Georgetown University professor, and Jacob Ware, Research Fellow at CFR and specialist in far-right extremism. Together, they discuss their groundbreaking new book, God, Guns, and Sedition, which examines the evolving landscape of far-right terrorism in America.

Three decades ago, we could all laugh at the absurdity of the White House being destroyed by aliens in the hit science fiction film, “Independence Day.” Today, however, the all-out assault on the White House depicted in Alex Garland’s “Civil War” leaves audiences singularly discomforted by its plausibility.

Hezbollah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah possessed a rare set of abilities that made the group a formidable foe to Israel and a power broker in Lebanon. His killing by Israel sharply weakens the threat posed by the group and its patron, Iran.

A common refrain about the war in Gaza is that Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas is counterproductive, because it will only create more terrorists and further radicalize Palestinians. But if the world is truly concerned about peace in the Middle East, it should be concerned about how Israel — and Jews around the world — will emerge from this war.

The disorganised mob approach of the extreme right has deep roots, as does the use of immigration policy to excuse it.

A non-governmental assessment of U.S. hostage policy, family engagement, and the hostage and wrongful detainee landscape.

Civil war is unlikely, but other alarming scenarios are quite possible.

On today’s episode, Matt is joined by terrorism experts Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware to discuss their book, "God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America.” Both are fellows at the Council on Foreign Relations and teach at Georgetown University. Their book examines the far-right’s long embrace of political violence as a tactic, its proliferation through social media, and provides a range of policy advice to counter this movement and extremism in democratic societies.

The alleged would-be terrorist had only reached New Mexico on his cross-country voyage when he was stopped by law enforcement on Interstate 40. Leaving Arizona, he had packed his car with seven firearms. His target, according to a Department of Justice news release from his mid-June indictment, was a concert in Atlanta, where his intention was to incite a race war before the 2024 presidential election by carrying out a mass shooting of African Americans and other minorities.

Israel has made eliminating the threat from the Gaza-based militant group a central war aim, but it’s not entirely clear at what point that condition will be met.

The modern far-right canon is replete with European tracts such as Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf or the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. But perhaps no book has had so pervasive or sustained an influence over violent far-right extremism in the United States as the dystopian 1978 novel, The Turner Diaries.

The Islamic State’s recent return to prominence with its bloody attack on a Moscow concert venue overshadowed a solemn and tragic anniversary of a different kind of terrorism. Five years ago in March, a white supremacist named Brenton Tarrant carried out twin shooting attacks against two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Fifty-one people were killed, all of whom were Muslim.

Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware are fellows at the Council on Foreign Relations, and co-authored God, Guns, and Sedition, in which they map the rise of far-right terrorism in the US, and offer ways to counter it.

In this interview, they discuss their book, the threat of political violence, the history of far-right groups in the US, and how the 2nd amendment played a significant role in creating them.

Guests Dr. Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware join host Col. Dave Brown and co-host Dr. Timothy Hoyt to discuss the modern growth of Far-Right terrorism in the United States; its definitions and distinctions, historical roots, major groups, recruitment, connections to U.S. military services, international expansion, and policy options in confronting these emerging militant movements.

Terrorism feels like such a part of our lives it’s hard to believe that we can actually pinpoint when it took on its modern form.

The mass casualty theater attack in Moscow was a reminder that affiliates of the Islamic State have reorganized and infiltrated even powerful states.

Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware are the coauthors of the recently published, God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America.

Three months into 2024, it seems dire predictions of political violence are now commonly issued both by the country’s extreme fringes as well as from the mainstream. Former President Donald Trump has been perhaps the most vociferous prognosticator, warning that there would be “bedlam in the country” should the criminal charges against him lead to a 2024 election loss.