John Horgan is a Professor in the Global Studies Institute and Department of Psychology at Georgia State University. He has a PhD in applied psychology and his research focuses on understanding psychological qualities of the pathways into, through, and out of terrorism.

Professor Horgan is one of the world’s leading experts on terrorist psychology and his current research examines the psychology of religious converts and their involvement in violent extremism, and the processes by which children become involved in terrorist organizations. His work is widely published, with books including The Psychology of Terrorism, Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland’s Dissident Terrorists; Walking Away from Terrorism, Leaving Terrorism Behind, and Terrorism Studies: A Reader. He is Editor of the journal Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict and serves on the Editorial Boards of several further journals, including Legal and Criminological Psychology, Terrorism and Political Violence, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Journal of Strategic Security.

Professor Horgan is a Series Co-Editor for Manchester University Press’ New Directions in Terrorism Series, and is a Senior Fellow (non-resident) of Hedayah, the world’s first think-tank dedicated to countering violent extremism. He is a member of the Research Working Group of the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. He has held positions at the University of Massachusetts (Lowell), Penn State, the University of St. Andrews, and University College, Cork. Professor Horgan’s research has been featured in such venues as The New York Times, CNN, Rolling Stone Magazine, Nature, Scientific American and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is currently co-authoring (with Mia Bloom) a book on children’s involvement in terrorism to be published by Cornell University Press in 2016.