CHIIS- Senior Researcher – Sweden

Dr Magnus Norell is an adjunct Scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington DC, USA and also a Senior Fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD), Brussels, Belgium. He was a Senior Analyst at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), Stockholm, Kista, Sweden and Senior Analyst at the Swedish Institute for International Affairs, Stockholm, Sweden. Magnus served as a Senior Analyst at the Swedish Military Intelligence from 1993 – 1996.

1997 – 2000. Between 1997 and 2000 Dr. Norell created, together with colleague Dr.Magnus Ranstorp, a back-channel between the Lebanese Hizb’allah movement and the Israelis. The purpose of this endeavour was to find out the consequences of a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the so called security zone in the southern Lebanon. The Initiative came from Yossi Beilin who, within the Israeli Labour party, for many years had advocated such a scenario. The process was successful and based on the ’indirect’ assurances given to Norell and Ranstorp by the leadership of the Hizb’allah, a swift and bloodless Israeli withdrawal took place in May 2000.

Mr Norell obtained a PhD in Political Science from Stockholm University in 1998. Mr Norell has worked on many fields and projects related with counter terrorism, Islamist radicalisation and political Islam.

Dr. Magnus was on many research and academic position, a few are as below:

  • Analyst and lecturer at the Swedish Defence College, 1997 – 2001. Course Development of, and Course Director for Specialization course on International Terrorism and Lowintensity warfare at the Defence College
  • Guest Researcher at the Hebrew University, The Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Jerusalem, Israel, 1991 –
  • Research assistant at the University of Stockholm 1985 – 1987. The last year as guest researcher at the University of Haifa,
  • Visiting Fellow and Fulbright Scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington D.C. Academic Year 2008-2009.

He has written and edited numerous articles, research papers and books on the topics of terrorist organisations, Islamist terrorism, fundamentalism and radicalisation, a few are as below:

  • Lebanon: the road back (Libanon: vägen tillbaka), IS, no 3, fall 1997. (Swedish) – Terror as a threat (Terror som hot), in; Threat perceptions in the Swedish Defence Establishment, Joint study by the National Defence College and the Swedish Defence Research Agency, Stockholm 1998. (Swedish)
  • Terrorism in the Middle East; Hizb’allah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad’ with Dr. Magnus Ranstorp at S:t Andrews University, in; Swedish Defence Research study on Terrorism, Ed: G. Jervas. Stockholm 1998.
  • The anatomy of terror – HAMAS (Terrorns anatomi- Hamas), IS no 2, summer 1998. (Swedish)
  • The Moslem Brotherhood in Sweden (ed), (Muslimska Brödraskapet i Sverige). Report commissioned by the Swedish Civil Contigencies Agency. November-December 2016.
  • Intisaar al-Haraka al-Islamiyya – Harb Lubnan al-Thaniyya wa in’akasatuha. November, 2009. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington D.C.
  • Islamisms’ victory – from Lebanon to Iran’ (Islamismens seger – från Libanon till Iran) Fri Tanke, Stockholm,
  • Hizballah and Iran in the Age of Engagement, PolicyWatch # 1495, March 18, 2009. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington C.

Dr. Magnus was affiliated with many international departments such as:

  • Editorial Board of Civil Wars, (Taylor & Francis), From 2006
  • Adjunct Scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. From May 2009
  • Intelligence in Combating Terrorism Course, given in Karlsborg, Sweden April 2001 by the US Army Intelligence School (Ft. Huachuca, AZ)
  • Organiser/local host in Stockholm for the 2003 and 2005 international CLIENT-Conferences on International Terrorism after the war in Iraq (2003) and Democracy in the Middle East after the war in Iraq (2004)
  • Organiser/local host in Stockholm for the 2007 International Conference on the Subject. Islamism in Europe. In cooperation with the cultural and political magazine NEO

He speaks a few languages including English and Swedish.