Seamus Hughes

Senior Research Faculty and Policy Associate
NCITE

email:

Additional Information

Bio

Seamus Hughes is a leading voice in the field of counterterrorism and extremism research whose career spans journalism, academia, and government.

In his career, Hughes worked at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), serving as a lead staffer on U.S. government efforts to implement a national terrorism prevention strategy. He regularly led engagements with communities across the country, provided counsel to civic leaders after high-profile terror-related incidents, and met with families of individuals who joined terrorist organizations. Hughes created a groundbreaking intervention program to help steer individuals away from violence through non-law enforcement means and worked closely with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, fusion centers, and U.S. Attorney Offices.

Prior to his work for NCTC, Hughes served as the senior counterterrorism advisor for the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Hughes has authored numerous legislative bills, including sections of the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act and the Special Agent Samuel Hicks Families of Fallen Heroes Act. He organized over a dozen congressional hearings on the threat of homegrown violent extremism, led fact-finding delegations to various European and Middle Eastern countries, and has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions. Hughes helped direct an academic research center at George Washington University for nearly a decade.

Additionally, Hughes is a research journalist at the New York Times. In 2022, Hughes was part of a New York Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for stories on law enforcement in America. In 2026, he was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. Hughes regularly provides commentary to media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC, PBS, and CBS’ 60 Minutes. Washingtonian magazine has repeatedly named him one of the country’s most influential voices on national security.

Hughes is a contributing editor for Lawfare. He has also been an adjunct faculty member for George Washington University and Georgetown University teaching numerous classes on terrorism and U.S. government policy making.

Research Interests

Terrorism; homegrown violent extremism; countering violent extremism

Education

B.A. Political Science and Government; University of Maryland College Park

Selected Publications

Meleagrou-Hitchens, A., Hughes, S., & Clifford, B. (2018). The travelers: American jihadists in Syria and Iraq. Program on Extremism, The George Washington University.

Hughes, S., & Margolin, D. (2019, November 10). The Fractured Terrorism Threat to America. Lawfare.

Meleagrou-Hitchens, A., Clifford, B., & Hughes, S. (2020). Homegrown.

Gordenstein, C., & Hughes, S. (2021, June 13). A sea change in counterterrorism. Lawfare.

Simi, P. & Hughes, S. (2023). Understanding Threats to Public Officials. Reports, Projects, and Research. 45.