Jennifer Cafarella

Jennifer Cafarella is the lead intelligence planner at the Institute for the Study of War, where she is responsible for shaping and overseeing the development of ISW’s detailed plans and recommendations on how to achieve U.S. objectives against enemies and adversaries and in conflict zones. As a former Syria analyst at ISW, she has written on the Syrian armed opposition, Al Qaeda’s Syrian al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al Nusra, and the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) in Syria. Ms. Cafarella has dealt extensively with the media, acting as a resource for NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Voice of America, the BBC, New York Times, CNN, Time, USA Today, and others. She is a graduate of ISW’s Hertog War Studies Program and was the Institute’s first Evans Hanson Fellow. Ms. Cafarella received her B.A. from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in Global Studies with a focus on the Middle East.