After witnessing the awful aftermath of decades of sectarian aggression and radical Islamist violence, Jared Cohen decided that he must go to the Middle East to better understand the phenomenon. After extensively studying Arabic and the history of the Middle East, he journeyed into the region and reached out to the youth in the area, putting himself in danger in order to understand their culture and views on government, Israel, and America. Children of Jihad is Cohen's account of his travels and interviews with the people he met. In September 2006, he was named the youngest member to the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff, where he focused on counter-terrorism, counter-radicalization, and Middle East/North Africa issues. Prior to his work at the State Department, Cohen received his BA from Stanford University and continued his education at the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Currently, he is the director of Google Ideas and is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He also serves as a member of the National Counterterrorism Center's Director's Advisory Board. Jared Cohen is also the author ofOne Hundred Days of Silence and most recently co-authored The New Digital Age, with Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google.