We are excited to celebrate the recent launch of ISD’s Head of Strategy, Farah Pandith’s new book, ‘How We Win: How Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurs, Political Visionaries, Enlightened Business Leaders, and Social Media Mavens Can Defeat the Extremist Threat’.

As the former first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities under Secretaries Clinton and Kerry at the U.S. Department of State, Farah talks about the urgent need to fight and stop the spread of violent extremism, and hate more generally.

She lays out a comprehensive strategy that is essentially a call to action for policymakers, tech entrepreneurs, the media, business professionals, and anyone interested in fighting hate, and presents concrete solutions and recommendations for how we can stem the extremists’ toxic message. Drawing upon her experiences at the State Department and National Security Council, she makes the case that we have the resources right now to stop this epidemic.

Blurb for ‘How We Win’

Despite the billions of dollars spent since 9/11 trying to defeat terrorist organizations, the so-called Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and other groups remain a terrifying geopolitical threat. In some ways the threat has grown worse: The 9/11 hijackers came from far away; the danger today can come from anywhere—from the other side of the world to across the street. Unable to stem recruitment, we seem doomed to a worsening struggle with a constantly evolving enemy that remains several steps ahead of us. Unfortunately, current policies seem almost guaranteed not to reduce extremist violence but instead to make it easier for terrorists to spread their hateful ideas, recruit new members, and carry out attacks.

We actually possess the means right now to inoculate communities against extremist ideologies. In How We Win, Farah Pandith presents a revolutionary new analysis of global extremism as well as powerful but seldom-used strategies for vanquishing it. Drawing on her visits to eighty countries, the hundreds of interviews and focus groups she’s conducted around the world, and her high-level experience in the Bush and Obama administrations, Pandith argues for a paradigm shift in our approach to combat extremism, one that mobilizes the expertise and resources of diplomats, corporate leaders, mental health experts, social scientists, entrepreneurs, local communities, and most of all global youth themselves

Find out more on Farah’s website here