Schar School of Policy and Government Terrorism Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC)

May Abboud Melki’s home was in shambles following the massive August 4 explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. Glass shards from blasted windows and debris filled her home, and nearly everything she owned had been damaged. That is, except for her piano.

Since the early 1990s, Congress has mandated that the State Department produce a report on global terrorism. Meet the Schar School team that is doing that.

When Haider Semaisim works on the federally mandated database of global incidents of terrorism with George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, he does so with pride. It is not only an educational and professional endeavor, he said. “It’s personal.”

To defend against terrorism, you have to understand it. Thanks to more than a dozen students, alumni and faculty at George Mason University working on a digital terrorism database, everyone from policy makers to researchers around the world will be a step closer to that goal.

One of the highlights of the semester for the graduate and undergraduate students who make up the research team at the Schar School’s Global Terrorism Trends and Analysis Center (GTTAC) was a meeting with Russell Travers, acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, December 4.