Hassan Hassan
Founder and Editor in Chief
Hassan Hassan is Founder and Editor in Chief of New Lines magazine. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, among other publications, and he has testified multiple times as an expert before Congress.
His 2015 book, “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror,” was a New York Times bestseller and was selected as one of the Times of London’s best books of 2015 and one of The Wall Street Journal’s top 10 books on terrorism. The book has been translated into more than a dozen foreign languages.
An American of Syrian origin, he holds a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Nottingham and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Damascus. He began his journalism career in 2008 with The National, then a newly launched English-language daily in the United Arab Emirates, serving as a news reporter. After the onset of the popular uprisings in 2011, known as Arab Spring, he joined its opinion section, later serving as the department’s deputy editor. In 2016, he moved to Washington D.C. to work in both policy and journalism, including for the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, the George Washington University and the Atlantic magazine. In 2020, he founded New Lines Magazine, in October of that year.
He lives in Virginia, U.S.
Latest from Hassan Hassan
Inside Israel’s Shadow War Against Iran in Syria
The newly surfaced “Moses” documents, apparently written by an Israeli operative, shed light on the dynamics between Assad and Iran. While Assad may have tried to limit Iran’s activities where possible, Tehran likely operated independently of Damascus, maintaining a firewall to ensure secrecy and prevent infiltration.
The Backstory Behind the Fall of Aleppo
A stunning offensive waged by two Turkish-backed forces over the space of the last five days has resulted in the conquering of Syria’s second-largest city and industrial hub, doing in under a week what more numerous and well-resourced anti-Assad rebels never managed.
End of an Era: What Hassan Nasrallah’s Assassination Spells for the Middle East
Hassan Nasrallah’s story is one of two halves. In the first, he was the hero of Arab public opinion, particularly after Hezbollah’s 2006 war with Israel. In the second, he was a sectarian thug who died trying to reclaim his former reputation.
Assad’s Plan To Keep Syria Out of the War in Gaza
The underlying reason for Syria’s relative quiet during the war in Gaza is that the regime in Damascus is engaged in a steady process of restoring relations with its former enemies, which might help it emerge as one of the victors when hostilities end.
How the Gulf States Are Exerting Their Influence in Africa
Competition in the Middle East is entering a new phase, shaped by the increasingly powerful Gulf states and their political and economic interests. No longer confined by traditional ideological and geographical fault lines, conflict is spilling into new theaters, and above all the Horn of Africa, with foreseeable results.
How Rural Music in the Middle East Bypassed Cultural Gatekeepers Using Tech and Weddings
The rise of Middle Eastern rural and folk music in the late 1990s is a fascinating story of a subculture reclaiming its prominence after being marginalized and policed by cultural gatekeepers for decades. This “creeping ruralism” also tracks with significant socioeconomic shifts in rural and suburban areas, reshaping the cultural landscape in unexpected ways.
Assad’s Hidden Hand in the Uprising Against the Kurds in Eastern Syria
In the months leading up to the current unrest, the focus of the U.S.-led forces shifted from combating jihadist cells to monitoring a plan to expel the Kurds from the area, with the help of individuals linked to the Assad regime.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi Leaves Behind a Complex Legacy
Qaradawi’s edict on suicide bombings will be the focus of Western media. But the influential cleric will be remembered differently in the Muslim world, as someone who challenged conservative social mores.
New Lines Broadens Its Horizons to Include the Whole World
The magazine at two expands its remit to include world coverage, with a local focus.
Zawahiri’s Death Is Anticlimactic to Al Qaeda’s Demise
The killing of the former leader of al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri, by a CIA drone attack in a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, is a symbolic victory for President Joe Biden. Zawahiri is said to have played a central role in the planning of the 9/11 attacks. In the real world, though, Zawahiri stopped being relevant years ago.
The ‘Conscious Uncoupling’ of Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia
Years before the Saudi leadership turned its back on the native Islamists who co-founded the kingdom, the movement had already been in decline. It is these longstanding problems, not just the current political environment, that make the Wahhabi decay irreversible.
The Next Islamic State Caliph
Although the next leader of the Islamic State group has yet to be announced, New Lines has obtained detailed information about the likeliest candidate to replace Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, who blew himself up on Feb. 3 in an effort to evade U.S. Special Forces as they raided his house in northern Syria. The details we obtained about Sumaidai’s life, never published before, have been gathered from people who knew him personally and from Iraqi authorities.
Keeping up With the Qaradashians
The next leader of the Islamic State will most likely come from this cabal of Afaris, a network we might call the Qaradashians.
New Lines, Year One
A year ago, we had an idea. It was an unusually optimistic one considering the dire state of the world,…
What the Global War on Terror Really Accomplished
Contrary to how some understand the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan, the lesson extremists are taking from the Taliban’s success is not simply that jihad works, but that diplomacy and engagement are a necessary part of the process, which includes reassuring the West about external threats emerging from their areas.
How Iraq’s Top ISIS Scholar Became a Target for Shiite Militias
Although Husham al-Hashimi helped the Iraqi government understand and hunt down ISIS terrorists, his last secret research project was on the criminality and extremism of Shiite militias. They assassinated him for it.