Nico Prucha is a principal at Cognitive Architectures and fellow at the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Vienna. Mr Prucha’s research focuses on textual and audiovisual content analysis of jihadist activity online, specifically focusing on jihadist Shari`a law interpretation of hostage taking and executions. He has written frequently on the subject, such as for Jane’s and blogs at Jihadica.com.

He has recently completed his Ph.D. on the subject and on the framework of the Internet as the prime propaganda platform for al-Qa’ida and related groups. He has done extensive fieldwork in the Middle East and Europe and works on lingual and cultural-anthropological elements of the jihadist phenomena for Cognitive Architectures.