In this eye-opening talk, Professor Thomas Hegghammer draws on years of research into militant Islamist movements to explore how jihadism has influenced the collapse of the Assad regime and altered the balance of power across the region. With deep regional knowledge and a sharp analytical lens, he’ll examine how clandestine activism and militant ideologies are disrupting traditional state structures—and what this means for the future of governance in the Middle East. Hegghammer is Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and author of landmark works including Jihad in Saudi Arabia and Al-Qaida in its Own Words.