By Christine June
Public Affairs Office
George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (July 12, 2016) – It was a full day of learning about Al-Qaeda and ISIS for the participants of the Program on Terrorism and Security Studies July 12 at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

Charles Lister, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, explained the “Divergent Prospects: Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Syria.”

In his presentation, Lister talked about Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the U.S. military's operational name for the military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, including the campaigns in Iraq and Syria

He discussed lessons learned from Operation Inherent Resolve, such as terrorism takes different forms and requires different tools and approaches.

As a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, Lister focuses on terrorism, insurgency and sub-state security threats across the Middle East. He is also a Senior Consultant to The Shaikh Group’s Track II Syria Initiative, which he has managed a more than two-year-long process of face-to-face engagement with the leaderships of over 100 Syrian armed opposition groups, as well as many other Syrian communities.

His analysis of the Syrian crisis, in particular its various insurgent actors, has been widely published and cited internationally and he frequently provides in-depth consultations to multiple governments on the war in Syria.

He was formerly a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar and before that, the head of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at the London-based IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre.

Dr. Jarret Brachman, who manages the Global Threat Intelligence program at Wells Fargo, presented two lectures.

His first lecture was on ISIS Online Recruitment, where he showed social media examples. His second lecture was on the past, present and future of Al-Qaida. Participants learned how and why Al-Qaeda has evolved over the years, the strengths and weaknesses of Al-Qaeda today, and the prospects for Al-Qaeda’s continued effectiveness in the future.

Brachman maintains an affiliation with the national intelligence community as an Intelligence Community Associate. Brachman served as the founding Director of Research at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center from 2004 to 2008 where he oversaw numerous studies on terrorism strategy, propaganda and leadership.

He holds a Ph.D in international relations from the University of Delaware and served as a

Fellow with the Central Intelligence Agency's Counterterrorist Center in 2003. He has provided training on both international and domestic terrorism movements for numerous law enforcement, military and intelligence audiences. In 2010, Brachman traveled to Libya to interview senior leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

Brachman has been called a "Laptop James Bond" by Esquire magazine and an "Information Warrior" by the Associated Press. He has testified before multiple Congressional subcommittees, the British House of Lords and has been cited in most major global media outlets.