Have you discovered information that could not only help fill gaps in scholarly literature but which might also be of value to policymakers?
Are you concerned that the conventions of traditional academic publishing might constrain your abilities to generate specific kinds of impact on contemporary policy debates?
Are you looking for a venue to present your knowledge and perspectives in a manner that is more explicitly policy prescriptive than most academic publishing outlets tend to allow?
The management team at Strife recognizes the norms of academic publishing can be restrictive. This is particularly the case when it comes to accommodating scholars’ interests in publishing research outputs that are tailored to contribute to current deliberations in policymaking spheres, such as by highlighting issues not identified in legislative research initiatives that, if exposed in a policy paper, could enhance the persuasiveness of calls for new policies. Rather than just acknowledge this is a frustrating fact of life for many academic researchers, in 2022, the management team at Strife decided to do something about it.
About Strife Policy Papers
This month, we’ve launched Strife Policy Papers (SPP) as a third pillar in the mix of works published by Strife. SPP’s founding editor, then-Strife Blog Managing Editor Michael S. Smith II, envisages SPP as a vehicle for allowing graduate and postgraduate researchers, as well as university faculty members who are not affiliated with think tanks to more actively engage in policy-making deliberations.
As we move into the 2022-2023 academic year, Michael S. Smith II will oversee Strife Policy Papers as a new third pillar within Strife’s publishing scheme of Strife Journal, Strife Blog, and now including Strife Policy Papers.
Learn more about Strife Policy Papers and how to submit here on our website.
Michael S. Smith II
Mike Smith is an internationally recognized expert on the influence operations of Salafi-Jihadist groups, open source intelligence (OSINT) specialist, and an international consultant in the fields of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE). During the decade prior to beginning his PhD research in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London in 2021, his work with prominent think tanks and as the chief operating officer of Kronos Advisory, a security consultancy he cofounded in 2011 with Medal of Honor recipient Major General James E. Livingston, USMC (Ret), was at the nexus of strategic and tactical threat analysis, technical mitigation support, and the formulation of United States national security policy. His perspectives on opportunities to more effectively manage threats linked to al-Qa’ida and ISIS were regularly sought by members of the United States Congress, officials with the Executive Office of the President of the United States and governments comprising the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, which, in 2017, invited him to serve as the keynote speaker during a counterterrorism practitioners conference hosted at the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office Headquarters in London. Also in 2017, he served as an expert witness during the United States Senate’s high-profile hearing focused on terrorists’ and Russian intelligence’s uses of popular social media platforms to wage online influence operations.
His work investigating the activities of al-Qa’ida and ISIS, along with his perspectives on issues affecting global security have been covered extensively by major news media in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the Middle East. In 2016, for his collaborations with anti-ISIS hactivists, Foreign Policy magazine listed Mike among the “Moguls” in its annual list of the “100 Leading Global Thinkers” and Fast Company magazine ranked him 14 on its annual list of the “100 Most Creative People in Business.”
Mike has (co)authored pieces published by a diverse mix of influential policy and news platforms, including Foreign Affairs, Lawfare, CNN.com, FoxNews.com, The Times of London/Sunday Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Time magazine’s Battleland Blog and World Politics Review, and his scholarly work includes a chapter on ISIS in the first edition of the Routledge Handbook of International Relations in the Middle East (2019). Prior to beginning his PhD research, which examines OSINT’s utilities in P/CVE initiatives, Mike also served as an adjunct member of the faculties of Johns Hopkins University’s MA in Global Security Studies and MS in Intelligence Analysis programs, for which he developed and taught a course focused on the OSINT discipline.
He received his MA in Intelligence and Security Studies, with Graduate Certificate in Intelligence Analysis, from The Citadel and his BA in Arts Management from the College of Charleston.
Bryan is an MA candidate in International Relations and Contemporary War in the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London.
Bryan joined Strife in September 2019 as Web Manager and was promoted to Managing Editor, Strife Blog in January 2021. He was named Editor in Chief in September 2021.
He holds appointments as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at Auburn University and as an Associate Member at the Forum for Private Security Research at the Department of Defence Studies at King’s College.
In 2019, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was previously a Humphrey Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and now serves on their Alumni Board of Directors.
In 2020, Bryan served a one-year term on the Academic Board of King’s College, London as the postgraduate taught representative for the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy.
In his professional life, Bryan is Principal & Chief Executive of Bryghtpath LLC, a crisis management and business continuity consultancy. He is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
His research interests center on how the alt-right measures, evaluates, and determines what is true – the intersection between intelligence operations and mis/disinformation campaigns that aim to amplify discord through digital means – and public/private sector collaboration in cybersecurity and national/homeland security issues.
Bryan holds a BA in Criminal Justice Administration from the University of Phoenix and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He is a graduate of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative Executive Program (NPLI) at Harvard University’s JFK School of Government.