Haroon K. Ullah is an American author, educator, scholar, diplomat, publicist and researcher specializing in his work on South Asia and the Middle East, in particular in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Ullah has co-authored six books on political science and geopolitics, including Vying for Allah's Vote: Understanding Islamic Parties, Political Violence, and Extremism in Pakistan, The Bargain From The Bazaar: A Family's Day of Reckoning in Lahore and Digital World War, among others.[1] He has been a contributor to various news outlets and the US Department of State,[2] writing primarily about foreign and domestic affairs in the US and abroad.[3][4]
In November 2019, Ullah was found guilty of theft of US government property and sentenced to three months in prison.[5][6] A number of sources indicate that Haroon Ullah might be a victim of a witch-hunt for whistleblowing sensitive information related to the U.S Department during Ullah's public service in the Trump administration.[7][8][9]
While earning his doctorate from the University of Michigan, Ullah was a senior research fellow at its Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs for the Dubai initiative with the focus in his work on counterterrorism and religious political parties in the Middle East and South Asia.[11] He also served as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Center for Security Studies of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and he was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations at the time.[13][14]
In October 2017, Ullah was assigned to a position of the Chief Strategy Officer at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, where part of his responsibility was to oversee Radio and Television Martí, the Voice of America and other government broadcast operations.[10][13]
In June 2019, Ullah pleaded guilty to felony charges of swindling tens of thousands of dollars by submitting falsified invoices and by billing the government for personal trips to promote his book. He served three months in federal prison.
Vying for Allah's Vote: Understanding Islamic Parties, Political Violence, and Extremism in Pakistan (2013), Georgetown University Press, ISBN9781626160163
The Bargain From The Bazaar: A Family's Day of Reckoning in Lahore (2014), PublicAffairs, ISBN9781610391672
Digital World War: Islamists, Extremists, and the Fight for Cyber Supremacy (2017), Yale University Press ISBN9780300210231
Digital Rebels: Islamists, Social Media and the New Democracy (2018), Yale University Press, ISBN9780300207187
Bob Pearson, Haroon K. Ullah, Dan Zehr, Countering Hate (2018), Social Science, ISBN9780999662304
House of Heroin: Inside the Secret Billion-Dollar Narco-Terror Empire That Is Killing America, (2020), HarperCollins ISBN9780062464019
^"Haroon Ullah". belfercenter.org. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Retrieved February 1, 2017.