Broderick James McDonald
University of Oxford / The Alan Turing Institute
​Broderick James McDonald is a senior AI Safety leader and a behavioural scientist at the University of Oxford, Kings College London, and The Alan Turing Institute. His work focuses on countering national security threats and catastrophic risk from from terrorism, disinformation, harmful manipulation, hybrid warfare, FIMI, and covert operations. Over the past decade, he has worked on these issues across government, tech, and civil society. His research & commentary have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The National Interest, among others. Alongside research, Broderick frequently provides expert analysis for a range of international news broadcasters, including ABC News, BBC News, CBC News, Good Morning America, BBC America, PBS News, The National, France24, and Al Jazeera News. His research spans the ideological spectrum and he has conducted fieldwork across the Middle East, Central Asia, and Europe. Within the Oxford Disinformation & Extremism Lab, he works on researcher safety training and monitoring emerging threats, including Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), 3D Printing, and Drones.
He currently serves on the Board of Advisors for American University's Repository for Open-Source Research & Analysis (AURORA) which provides advanced training on national security tradecraft and adheres to the Analytic Tradecraft Standards used by the U.S. Intelligence Community. Additionally, he serves on the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)'s Independent Advisory Committee, an initiative by Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and other technology platforms to counter terrorist misuse of the internet. Outside of this, he serves on the GLOCA Board of Advisors, the EU VOX-Pol Network of Excellence leadership team, and the Aspen Institute UK's RLF Advisory Board. Alongside his research, Broderick has advised governments, international prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, five-eyes intelligence agencies, senior politicians & civil servants, parliamentarians, NGOs. AI security institutes (AISIs), frontier AI labs, and social media platforms on security threats and emerging technologies.
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About
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Broderick McDonald is a researcher at the University of Oxford, Kings College London, and The Alan Turing Institute working on extremism, terrorism and international security. He previously lived in the Middle East and has conducted extensive fieldwork with combatants from ISIS, HTS, and other armed groups. Prior to this, Broderick served as an Advisor to the Government of Canada and was a Fellow with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). He has provided analysis for a range of international news broadcasters including ABC News, CBC News, BBC America, BBC World News, PBS News Al Jazeera, France24 and given expert commentary for news outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Prospect Magazine, The National News, Middle East Eye, L’Orient-Le Jour, Al Arabiya, CS Monitor, and The Globe & Mail. Broderick currently serves on the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism’s (GIFCT) Independent Advisory Committee and the GLOCA Board of Advisors. He is a fellow with the Aspen Insitute UK and an Associate Member of Chatham House. Alongside his research, Broderick advises policymakers, parliamentarians, international prosecutors, NGOs, social media platforms, and AI developers on emerging security threats from terrorist & extremist entities, non-state actors, and hostile foreign states.
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​Research Interests
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Extremism & Terrorism
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Disinformation
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Online Harms
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Researcher Safety
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State Influence Campaigns
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Algorithmic Content Moderation
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AI Safety & Malicious Actor Misuse
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LLM Evaluations and Safeguards
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Recent Publications
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The Long Road to Damascus: HTS, Assad, and the Future of Syria
Global Network on Extremism & Technology, Kings College London
Broderick McDonald / https://www.justsecurity.org/author/mcdonaldbroderick/
Access: https://www.justsecurity.org/106215/syria-assad-regime-what-next/
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The Drones of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS): The Development and Use of UAS in Syria
Global Network on Extremism & Technology, Kings College London
Broderick McDonald / https://www.justsecurity.org/author/mcdonaldbroderick/
Access: https://gnet-research.org/2024/12/20/the-drones-of-hayat-tahrir-al-sham-the-development-and-use-of-uas-in-syria/​
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A New Far-Right Threat to Democratic Elections
Al Jazeera
Broderick McDonald / https://www.justsecurity.org/author/mcdonaldbroderick/
Access: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/5/2/active-clubs-a-new-far-right-threat-to-democratic-elections​
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Tech Against Terrorism: Extremism, Elections, and Active Clubs
Tech Against Terrorism
Broderick McDonald
Access: https://podcast.techagainstterrorism.org/1684819/14864219-active-clubs-fitness-fraternity-and-fascism
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The Wagner Group's Growing Shadow: Counter-Terrorism in the Sahel
United States Military Academy at West Point (Modern War Institute)
Broderick McDonald, Guy Fiennes
AI Content Moderation and Evasion Tactics on Social Media Platforms
Global Network on Extremism & Technology, Kings College London
Broderick McDonald
How Far Right Extremists Respond to Failed Predictions
Global Network on Extremism & Technology, Kings College London
Broderick McDonald
https://gnet-research.org/2021/03/31/how-qanon-reacts-to-failed-predictions/
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Research: Jihadist Salafist Extremism, Far Right Extremism, Misinformation, Disinformation, State Influence Operations, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Scalable Content Moderation, Encryption, Alt Tech Platforms
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