Jonathan Russell is Quilliam’s Political Liaison Officer. He holds a BA in Arabic, German and Persian from the University of Exeter and an MSc in the History of International Relations at the London School of Economics. He is responsible for maintaining Quilliam’s position as a non-partisan counter-extremism think-tank, and looks after all relations with all major political parties and civil servants in the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the European Union. His research focus is counter-extremism strategy and has written papers for Quilliam on The Effectiveness of Al Qaeda, a White Paper on Prevent and a review of Counter-Extremism in the last decade.

Jonathan currently leads two projects for Quilliam. The first is to campaign for cross-party commitment to human rights in counter-terrorism legislation and policy. The second is to promote clarity, consistency and cohesion in counter-extremism policy across the 28 EU member states. He features regularly in the UK print and broadcast media, having written in The Independent, The Times and CNN International and appeared on BBC Breakfast, the Sky Debate and Al Arabiya, amongst others. He has delivered presentations and training workshops to schools, local government officials, academics, and national representatives, both in the UK and all around Europe, most notably on Online Radicalisation at the Council of Europe, Parentzone’s Digital Families Conference, and at fringe events at the Conservative Party Conference.