Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Fellow and director of the Jeanette and Eli Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the

Washington Institute for Near East Policy The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP or TWI, also known simply as The Washington Institute) is a pro-Israel American think tank based in Washington, D.C., focused on the foreign policy of the United States in the Near East. WINE ...

and an adjunct professor in

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Center for Security Studies The Center for Security Studies (CSS) is a center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, which focuses on Swiss and international security. Overview The center was founded by Prof. Dr. Kurt Spillmann in 1986 and has been led ...

(CSS). From 2005 to early 2007 he was a deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, he served both as a senior official within the department's terrorism and financial intelligence branch and as deputy chief of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. From 2001 to 2005, Levitt served the Institute as founding director of its Terrorism Research Program (now renamed as above), which was established in the wake of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

. Previously, he provided tactical and strategic analytical support for counter-terrorism operations at the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

, focusing on fundraising and logistical support networks for Middle Eastern terrorist groups. During his FBI service, Levitt participated as a team member in a number of crisis situations, including the terrorist threat surrounding the turn of the millennium and the September 11 attacks. Levitt has also lectured on international terrorism on behalf of the Departments of

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

Defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

, and

Homeland Security Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" to ...

, consulted for various U.S. government agencies and private industry, and testified before the Senate and House on matters relating to international terrorism. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the international advisory board for both the Institute for Counter-terrorism in Israel and the International Centre for Political Violence & Terrorism Research in Singapore, and a CTC fellow with the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point). He serves on the advisory board of Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF) and formerly served on the academic advisory board for the Emirati Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR). Levitt was a graduate research fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation and previously taught at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

(SAIS) and

Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences The Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts & Sciences is an academic division of the Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. The school is located on the university's Homewood campus. It is the core of Johns Hopkin ...

. Levitt received his B.A. from

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU
on the Yeshiva Universit ...

and his M.A. and Ph.D. from

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. The School is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations and is well-ranked in its ...

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

. He attended high school at the

Maimonides School Maimonides School (Hebrew: ישיבת רמב"ם ''Yeshivat Rambam'') is a coeducational, Modern Orthodox Judaism, Modern Orthodox, Jewish day school located in Brookline, Massachusetts. The school was founded in 1937 by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik a ...

. Levitt has written extensively on terrorism, countering violent extremism, illicit finance and sanctions, the Middle East, and Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, with articles appearing in peer-reviewed journals, policy magazines, and the press, including the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

'', ''

Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

'', and numerous other publications. He is also a frequent guest on the national and international media, and the author of several books and monographs, including
Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad
' (Yale University Press, 2006),
Negotiating Under Fire: Preserving Peace Talks in the Face of Terror Attacks
' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), and
Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God
' (Georgetown University Press, 2013), as well as creator of th
Lebanese Hezbollah Select Worldwide Activity Interactive Map and Timeline
Levitt was a key prosecution witness in the 2007 trial of the Palestinian-American charity, the

Holy Land Foundation The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) was the largest Islamic charity in the United States. Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, and run by Palestinian-Americans, it was originally known as Occupied Land Fund. The organization's mission was to "find and ...

. Peled, Miko (2018) ''Injustice. The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five''. Just World Books. . pp.117-121

Published works

* ''Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God'' (Georgetown University Press, 2013) * ''Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad'' (Yale University Press, 2006) * ''Targeting Terror: U.S. Policy toward Middle Eastern State Sponsors and Terrorist Organizations, Post-September 11'' (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2002) * ''Negotiating Under Fire: Preserving Peace Talks in the Face of Terror Attacks'' (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008) * "Hezbollah Finances: Funding the Party of God," in ''Terrorism Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective'' (Stanford University Press, 2007) * "Hamas Social Welfare: In the Service of Terror," in ''The Making of a Terrorist: Recruitment, Training, and Root Causes'' (New York: Praeger Publishers, 2005) * "The Impact of Acute Security Crises on the Process of Ongoing Negotiations: Lessons from the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process, 1993-1996" (Ph.D. dissertation, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 2005).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Levitt, Matthew Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Middle Eastern studies in the United States Counterterrorism theorists Yeshiva University alumni The Fletcher School at Tufts University alumni Harvard Law School fellows Johns Hopkins University faculty Maimonides School alumni Experts on terrorism