Jason Blazakis

Aside from his adjunct work at Johns Hopkins, Jason is a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) where he focuses on threat financing, sanctions, violent extremism, and special operations related research. He is also the Director of MIIS’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism where he directs research on domestic terrorism, terrorism finance, recruitment, propaganda, and the use of special operations to counter transnational threats. CTEC provides expert guidance to and reports on the nature of far-right and far-left wing extremism to a world-leading Silicon Valley company as it fends off extremist efforts to abuse its platforms.

From 2008-2018, he served as the Director of the Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office, Bureau of Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State. In his former role, Jason was responsible for directing efforts to designate countries, organizations, and individuals as terrorists, also known as State Sponsors of Terrorism, Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Jason previously held positions in the Department of State’s Political-Military Affairs, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Intelligence and Research Bureaus, and at U.S. Embassy Kabul.

Prior to working at the Department of State, Jason served as a domestic intelligence analyst at the Congressional Research Service. In addition, he was the national security adviser to a United States Congressional Representative. He also has worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Technology Administration.

Jason is also a Senior Fellow at the Soufan Center and a Senior Advisor at the Soufan Group. Jason is also on the editorial advisory board for the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence.

He has published articles in Time Magazine, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Hill, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Lawfare. He regularly is quoted by the media (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reuters, ABC, CBS, NBC, amongst others) on a wide-range of terrorism and sanctions related matters.

He holds degrees from the University of Mississippi, Columbia University, and Johns Hopkins University.