Jonathan Russell

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.

In his role as Political Liaison Officer, he is responsible for maintaining Quilliam’s position as a non-partisan counter-extremism think-tank, through the preservation and fostering of relations with all major political parties and civil servants in the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the European Union and the United Nations as well as with political correspondents at major news sources and other think-tanks.

Jonathan currently leads three 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. The third is the development of counter-narrative content.

Jonathan has written papers for Quilliam on The Effectiveness of Al Qaeda, a White Paper on Prevent and Counter-Extremism: A Decade on from 7/7. 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, on Radicalisation in Prisons at the Woolf Institute and on Primary Prevention in Schools with the Slough Faith Partnership.