Lea Brost

Non-Resident Fellow
Contact
brost@ifsh.de
Social media

Vita

Since February 2025, Lea Brost is a Non-Residential Fellow at the IFSH. Previously, she worked as a researcher at the IFSH as part of the project Configurations of social and political practices in dealing with radical Islam (KURI), which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. For this, Lea Brost conducted a long-term study of Islamism in Germany and examined Islamist plots and attacks, as well as non-violent Islamist activities and public appearances. In the past, she has studied German counterterrorism measures from the 1970s to the present. She also analysed the different approaches of countering right-wing terrorism and Islamist terrorism in Germany. Prior to that, Lea Brost did an internship at the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism in New York. She studied International History and Politics at the University of Leeds and the Università degli Studi di Siena and did the MA Intelligence and International Security at King’s College London. 

Research profile

  • Extremism
  • Terrorism and counterterrorism
  • Radicalisation
  • Islamism
  • Islamist narratives on TikTok
  • Right-wing extremism and left-wing extremism 

Memberships & professional activities

  • PhD student at Royal Holloway University, London 

Selected Publications

  • Brost, Lea, Lea Deborah Scheu. 2025. Sicherheitsbehördliche Bedrohungsdarstellungen und -einschätzungen im Umgang mit Islamismus. Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung DOI: 10.1007/s42597-025-00140-x.
  • Brost, Lea. 2024.
    Seeing Eye to Eye: The Crucial Role of Legitimacy in Multistakeholder Initiatives.
     In: VOX-Pol Blog
  • Ahmed, Reem , Stephen Albrecht , Lea Brost , Hendrik Hegemann , Susanne Johansson , Julian Junk , Martin Kahl , Mona Klöckner , Janina Pawelz , Isabelle Stephanblome , Clara-Auguste Süß . 2024. Gesellschaftlicher Frieden / Demokratie unter Druck: Politische Extremismen und hybride Ideologien. In: Friedensgutachten 2024, edited by Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, Leibniz-Institut Friedens- und Konfliktforschung, Institut für Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik an der Universität Hamburg (IFSH), Institut für Entwicklung und Frieden , 132-153. Bielefeld : transcript .
  • Brost, Lea, Martin Kahl, Theresa Morgenstern, Manjana Sold. 2022. Islamismus und islamistischer Terrorismus in Deutschland seit 2001. Aktivitäten – Strukturen – Merkmale. Research Report 011. Hamburg: IFSH. DOI: 10.25592/ifsh-research-report-011.
  • Ahmed, Reem , Stephen Albrecht , Lea Brost , Hendrik Hegemann , Julian Junk , Martin Kahl , Isabelle Stephanblome . 2022. Transnationale Sicherheitsrisiken / Außer Kontrolle? Sicherheitsinstitutionen in Demokratien. In: Friedensgutachten 2022, edited by Bonn International Center for Conversion, Leibniz Institut Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung, Institut für Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik an der Universität Hamburg (IFSH), Institut für Entwicklung und Frieden , 133-149. Bielefeld : transcript .
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