Cole Bunzel is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Arabia Foundation working on Sunni jihadism and religious dynamics in Saudi Arabia and the broader Middle East. A PhD. candidate in near eastern studies at Princeton University, his research focuses on the history and theology of Wahhabism/Salafism in Saudi Arabia and the Jihadi-Salafi movement underlying groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State. He has written extensively on developments in jihadi ideology, including for the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the blog Jihadica. He received his BA in near eastern studies from Princeton University and MA in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Select Publications:
From Paper State to Caliphate: The Ideology of the Islamic State. Brookings Institute, 2015.
The Kingdom and the Caliphate: Duel of the Islamic States. Carnegie Endowment, 2016.
Allah Wants ISIS to Retreat. Foreign Policy, October 25, 2016.
Jihadism on Its Own Terms: Understanding a Movement. Hoover Institution, 2017.
The Islamic State Will Survive. Foreign Policy, July 10, 2017.