Jason Blazakis
Professor of Practice and Director of Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS)
2021, 2022, 2023
Jason Blazakis is a professor at 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.
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, Blazakis 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. Blazakis 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, Blazakis 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.
At the Summit
The catalytic power of this Summit in bringing together those who are devoting their lives to pushing back and working to confront, understand and work towards solutions around hate in our society is a noble and difficult task. The Summit not only energized those who attended but led to connecting the dots in a global network of those doing this work. The stories of the victims of hate were painful to witness but their courage in coming forward was inspirational. Those who attended left energized with the hope that by working together solutions can be forged.
