For more than 15 years, ISD has partnered with academic, private and public sector partners in the United States to provide insights and solutions to extremism, disinformation and hate. Today, our work in the US has expanded and we have a permanent office in Washington DC with staff stationed across the country.

ISD’s growing team in the US works with our partners to detect and mitigate threats, protect America’s democratic institutions, build capacity for locally-led violence prevention interventions and drive policy change.

Our work
Our US-based work is rooted in the unique social, cultural, economic and legislative environment that exists in the country. Our projects rely on strong partnerships, online research and practical outreach.

Detecting and mitigating threats

ISD has been a longstanding leader addressing global and domestic threats across the hybridized landscape. In 2015, ISD helped stage the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, directly advising then President Barack Obama and his counter-terrorism team. ISD has continued this work, advising decision makers from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies on evolving threats both on- and offline.

ISD’s partnership with the Center for Internet Security provides real-time intelligence to thousands of law enforcement officials on dynamic threats and regular updates on the evolving risks posed by disinformation and extremist organizations.

Protecting our democracy and targeted communities

With America’s democracy increasingly under attack by a range of actors, ISD has taken the lead in providing regular threat detection, training and insights to groups on the front line of protecting elections and democracy. ISD's US team works with election officials at the state and local level, and directly briefs officials at the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and Congress on these threats to help shape their responses.

In 2022, our elections team conducted daily monitoring of online disinformation and potential threats to election officials, election infrastructure like drop boxes and polling places, and even regular voters looking to participate in democracy. These monitoring reports were shared weekly in key states with governors, secretaries of state, local election officials, and others tasked with ensuring a free and fair vote.

In response to a rise in antisemitism throughout the US, ISD has developed a data analytics system to identify and track online threats against Jewish institutions. This capability, a combination of advanced big data analytics (NLP and machine learning systems trained to the issue set by experts) and human intelligence, can be adapted and applied to other communities increasingly threatened by extremist groups and actors.

Building capacity for community-based violence prevention

The Strong Cities Network (SCN) launched in 2015 at the UN General Assembly to mount a city-led response against hate, polarization and extremism. In the US, SCN facilitates partnerships between member cities including New York, Los Angeles and Denver to design and deploy local responses to these complex challenges, ensuring no city faces these threats alone. Our government partners include Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and the US, with additional engagement supported or commissioned by individual members of our network of over 160 cities. 

Additionally, through our partnership with the McCain Institute, ISD's US team is training and building the first US network of frontline practitioners, equipped to recognize and respond to domestic extremist threats. The content for this training has been developed by ISD and builds on work done around the world to support frontline practitioners with the capacity and tools to address local threats. The network has now trained nearly 1000 practitioners, including social and healthcare workers, education providers and law enforcement. 

ISD has also worked with the US State Department and the first Special Representative to Muslim Communities, Farah Pandith, to connect and empower Muslim changemakers from across Europe and North America.