Noah Tucker is senior research consultant for the Oxus Society, an associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard and held the Handa Studentship at the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews (Scotland) from 2021-2024. He was previously Executive Editor for the Not in Our Name film and television series, the first region-wide project designed to prevent violent extremism in Central Asia through community dialogues in areas most directly affected by recruiting to Syria. Noah has worked as a consultant to programs supporting and evaluating programs for returnees from the Syrian conflict in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for the US State Department and USIP. He has worked broadly on collaborative projects for government, academic and international organizations to identify the way social and religious groups affect political and security outcomes in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Recent publications include “Uzbek Women in the Syrian Conflict: First-Person Narratives and Gendered Perspectives on Mobilization and De-Mobilization.” Noah has worked on Central Asian issues since 2002—specializing in religion, national identity, ethnic conflict and social media—and received an MA at Harvard’s Davis Center in in 2008. Noah has spent more than six years living and working in in the region, primarily in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and works in Russian and Uzbek.
Corruption & Impunity, Ethnic Discrimination Or Persecution , Ex-Combatant Reintegration , Journalist Persecution, Political Persecution, Reintegration, Torture, Risk Of Retaliation, Risk of Return, Religious Discrimination Or Persecution, Gang-Related Violence/Non-State Actors
Terrorism; Laws on religion and their enforcement; "non-traditional" religious groups and new religious movements in Central Asia.
Yes. Dr. Tucker worked a a range of asylum cases in the US and UK (around 8-10 total cases), usually citing religious or ethnic discrimionation, risk of return, and the indiscriminate use of terrorism charges as a political tool and risk of torture during detention or incarceration. He has also worked as an advisor for the defense and testified in terrorism prosecutions in the the United States on credible charges, helping to give context establish mitigating factors.
Under submission
“We Bear Witness to Unspeakable Horrors:” Historical Violence, Contemporary Terrorism and Collective Trauma in Central Asia (book draft under submission).
Selected Publications
· “Trapped between Three Conflicts, Central Asian Migrants Face Problems We Can No Longer Ignore,” with Stevan Weine, MD Ponars Eurasia Policy Memo no. 909 (pdf), August 2024.
· “A ‘Hotbed’ or a Slow, Painful Burn? Explaining Central Asia’s Role in Global Terrorism” with Edward Lemon, CTC Sentinel, Issue 17/7 July-August 2024
· Operation Jusan in Year 4: Understanding and Addressing Present and Future Needs(with Gulnaz Razdykova, B. Heidi Ellis, Robert Orell, Dina Birman, Stevan Weine. Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST – UK 2024)
· “What Can We Learn from Exploring the Traumatised Past of Returnees?” Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats, CREST Security Review, Issue 15 December 2022
· “Foreign Fighters, Returnees and a Resurgent Taliban: Lessons for Central Asia from the Syrian Conflict” Security and Human Rights, 1-14 (2022).
· “Terrorism without a God: Reconsidering Radicalization and Counter-radicalization Models in Central Asia” George Washington University Central Asia Program, September 2019.
· “What Happens When Your Town Becomes an ISIS Recruiting Ground? Lessons from Central Asia about Vulnerability, Resistance, and the Danger of Ignoring Perceived Injustice” Central Asia Program, George Washington University, June 2018.
· Central Asian Involvement in the Conflict in Syria and Iraq: Drivers and Responses USAID, Democracy and Governance and Peace and Security in the Asia and Middle East Program. May 2015.
· Violent Extremism and Insurgency in Uzbekistan: A Risk Assessment United States Agency for International Development, Bureau for the Middle East (2014)
· “Digital Memory and a ‘Massacre’: Uzbek Identity in the Age of Social Media” The Uzbekistan Initiative/George Washington University (2014)
Book chapters
· “Uzbek Women in the Syrian Conflict: First-Person Narratives and Gendered Perspectives on Mobilization and De-Mobilization” in Negotiating Gender in Central Asia: The Effects of Gender Structures and Dynamics on Violent Extremism, Peter Knoope and Seran de Leede, eds. George Washington University Central Asia Program (2022).
· "The Evolution of the Uzbek Jihad" in Constructing the Uzbek State: Narratives of Post-Soviet Years edited by Marlene Laruelle (Lexington 2017)
· “Engineering Islam: Religion and the Uzbek State" with David Abramson in (book) Pauline Jones Luong and Alexandra Vacroux, eds. Islam in Eurasia, University of Pittsburgh Press (2017).
· “Domestic Shapers of Eurasia’s Islamic Futures: Sheikh, Scholar, Society and the State,” in Islam in Eurasia: A Policy Volume, Thomas W. Simons ed. (Cambridge, Mass: The Davis Center at Harvard University 2015).
Documentary films
Oqlanmagan – The Unrehabilitated. 30-minute documentary film, Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs and Citylab Productions (Bishkek), January 2024.
Not in Our Name (Documentary film and TV series, Executive Editor). Film and series of 10 television programs. RFE/RL (Prague) October 2018.