Dr Christina Schori Liang

Position(s)

Head of Counterterrorism and PVE

Personal website

GCSP Counterterrorism and Preventing Violent Extremism

Profile

Dr Christina Schori Liang is Head of Counterterrorism and Preventing Violent Extremism at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Geneva, Switzerland. At the GCSP, she designs and directs courses on Preventing Violent Extremism and on Transnational Organised Crime and Security. She leads GCSP’s Geneva Security Debates and offers academic and policy guidance for global security actors worldwide.

She is the editor of Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right and has contributed to the 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023 Global Terrorism Index. She has recently co-edited a Handbook on Security Science published by Springer Verlag.

Dr Liang has given over a 100 academic and policy-related presentations in 32 countries. Dr Liang testified for the US National Intelligence Council, the US State Department, the European Commission, and the European Forum for Urban Security and has given multiple presentations for the Munich Security Conference, the NATO Defense College in Rome and the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna.

She is on the advisory board of the RESOLVE Network Research Advisory Council of the US Institute for Peace and an expert for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Dr Liang has taught University courses since 2002. Most recently she was an Adjunct Faculty member for Boston University from 2008-2013. Since 2016, she has been an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po, Paris where she teaches courses within the Global Risks and Intelligence Studies departments.

She holds a doctorate in International Relations and an MA in History and International Politics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland.

Select Publications

Liang, Christina Schori, Building Resilience Against Uncrewed Aerial Systems, GCSP Policy Brief, April 2023.
Liang, Christina Schori, Growing Nexus of Terrorism and Organized Crime in Masys, Anthony, Handbook of Security Science, Springer Verlag, 2022.
Liang, Christina Schori, Technology and Terror: The New Arsenal of Anarchy, in Masys, Anthony, Handbook of Security Science, Springer Verlag, 2022.
Liang, Christina Schori, Far-Right Contagion: The Global Challenge of Transnational Extremist Networks, Masys, Anthony, Handbook of Security Science, Springer Verlag, 2022.
Liang, Christina Schori, "Terrorist Digitalis: Preventing Terrorists from Using Emerging Technologies", Institute for Economics and Peace, in the Global Terrorism Index 2023.
Liang, Christina Schori, "The Technology of Terror: From Dynamite to the Metaverse", Institute for Economics and Peace, in the Global Terrorism Index 2022, Institute for Economics and Peace, March 2022.
Liang, Christina Schori and Matthew John Cross, White-Crusade: How to Prevent Right-Wing Extremists from Exploiting the Internet, Strategic Security Analysis, July 2020.
Liang, Christina Schori, “Hydra: The Evolving Anatomy of Extremism”, in the “2019 Global Terrorism Index: Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism.” Institute for Economics and Peace. 2019 p. 82-85.
Bak, Mathias, Kristoffer Nilaus Tarp and Christina Schori Liang, Defining the Concept of ‘Violent Extremism’: Delineating the attributes and phenomenon of violent extremism, Geneva Paper 24/19, Geneva Centre for Security Policy, August 2019.
Liang, Christina Schori, “Unveiling the “United Cyber Caliphate” and the Birth of the E-Terrorist” in Georgetown Journal of International Affairs International Engagement on Cyber VII, Fall 2017, Volume 18, No. 3. p. 11-20.
Liang, Christina Schori, “Leaderless Jihad in a Leaderless World: The Future of Terrorism”, in the “2017 Global Terrorism Index: Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism.” Institute for Economics and Peace. 2017 p. 88-91.
Liang, Christina Schori, “Mapping the New Global Criminal-Terrorist Networks,” in the “2016 Global Terrorism Index: Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism.” Institute for Economics and Peace. 2016 p. 84-88.
Liang, Christina Schori, “The Criminal-Jihadist: Insights into Modern Terrorist Financing,” Strategic Security Analysis – 2016 n°10, August 2016.
Liang, Christina Schori, “ISIL Inc: A Portrait of a Modern Terrorist Enterprise,” in the “2015 Global Terrorism Index: Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism.” Institute for Economics and Peace. 2015 p. 76-80
Liang, Christina Schori, “Cyber Jihad: Understanding and Countering Islamic State Propaganda.” GCSP Policy Paper 2015/2
Liang, Christina Schori, “Shadow Networks: The Growing Nexus of Terrorism and Organised Crime.” GCSP Policy Paper 20, November, 2011.
Liang, Christina Schori, “Schattennetzwerke: Der Wachsende Nexus von Terrorismus und Organisierter Kriminalität, GCSP Policy Paper 20, November, 2011. GCSP Policy Paper 20 – Deutsch.pdf (952.2 kB)
Liang, Christina Schori (ed.) Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right (London: Ashgate Publishing, 2007), 318 p.

Participating in upcoming course/event

1 October 2025

Organised Crime and Security Policy: Understanding the Threat to Design Better Responses 2025