God, guns and inspiration: shaping a career in counterterrorism
Alumnus and author Jacob Ware (MA 2017) was inspired by a lecture at St Andrews to embark on a career in counterterrorism. He returned to the University earlier this year with his co-author and former St Andrews academic, Professor Bruce Hoffman, for the launch of God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America.
My decision to attend St Andrews was based largely on family ties. My brother, three years ahead of me, had blazed a trail to Fife, and I had the fortune of visiting him there on several occasions, falling head-over-heels in love with the town and the community. I was a young and immature 17-year-old and remember thinking St Andrews felt like a safe and comfortable place to spend the next stage of my life. My little sister would eventually follow in our footsteps, meaning my parents were proud parents of St Andrews students for ten years straight.
From pubs to policy
My key memories from my time at the University all centre around the town’s many pubs. A great deal of time was spent in Drouthy Neebors and the Dunvegan on the west side of St Andrews, where I lived during my third and fourth years. I also frequented the Central, Aikman’s, The Rule, Ma Bells and the Vic. When I revisit St Andrews now, my trips always start and end with a pint of Tennent’s at one of the above, ideally with one of the lifelong friends I made during my studies.
I am also reminded of St Andrews whenever I find time for a game of golf. For several years while at university, I was forced to miss out on my regular sports – football and ice hockey – due to a knee injury suffered in my first year. I took up golf as part of my rehabilitation and achieved my goal of reaching a 24 handicap. This target ensured I was able to play the Old Course a handful of times before I graduated!
The lecture that sparked a career
Of course, I do also have fond memories of my time in the classroom. I learned from brilliant professors in the International Relations and Modern History departments and tested the various assumptions and misunderstandings about the world that I had developed in my youth.
I began to nurse a budding interest in counterterrorism, particularly concerning a growing far-right white supremacist and anti-government movement that appeared to be targeting communities in the United States and Europe with greater confidence and viciousness in the mid-2010s
In 2015, I had the fortune of attending a lecture just off St Salvator’s Quad on the topic of ‘the future of ISIS’, delivered by the great terrorism scholar Bruce Hoffman. Professor Hoffman had founded the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence in St Andrews in the 1990s and was a legend around the Arts Building during my time studying there 20 years later.
By that time, Professor Hoffman worked at Georgetown University in my hometown of Washington, DC, and his lecture inspired me to seek further study there. I embarked upon the Security Studies Program in the Walsh School of Foreign Service immediately after my graduation from St Andrews in 2017.
As luck would have it
Well, life works in mysterious ways, and when I graduated from Georgetown two years later, I applied for (and secured) a job as Professor Hoffman’s research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank and foreign policy organisation with an office in Washington.
In 2019, far-right terrorism roared to international consciousness, chiefly as a result of the twin attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand that March, targeting the city’s Muslim community. Within six months of working together, Bruce and I had embarked on a book project, seeking to investigate how far-right terrorism had grown to be such a serious threat to Western communities. God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America was published in January 2024 and brought us both back to St Andrews for book talks at Toppings & Co and Parliament Hall.
Personal and professional: a St Andrews romance
St Andrews was an invaluable part of my journey. Not only did it provide the intellectual basis for my professional career—my interest in counterterrorism was sparked by classes such as ‘Armaments and International Relations’ and ‘The Logic of Irregular Warfare’, and I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the effectiveness of drone strikes in Pakistan—but I also met my future wife in my first year, and we returned to St Andrews for our wedding in June 2022.
Jacob with his girlfriend — now wife — at graduation in 2017
It’s hard to believe it’s been over 10 years since I first arrived in St Andrews, but in that decade, the town and the University have woven their way into my soul. As I wrote in the preface of my book, “home is where the heart is, and my heart will forever be in Scotland.”