ITHACA, N.Y. -- Bruce Hoffman, an internationally recognized expert on terrorism and a prolific author on the subject, will visit Cornell University Monday, April 19, to speak on "The Continuing Threat of al Qaeda and the Future of Terrorism."

The talk, at 7:30 p.m. in G10 Biotechnology Building on campus, is free and open to the public.

Hoffman is vice president for external affairs for Rand Corp. and director of the research and analysis organization's Washington, D.C., office. He will discuss the state of al Qaeda today and examine what current trends in terrorism say about the organization's future. More important, he will examine al Qaeda's likely agenda in response to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Hoffman is a much-quoted authority on terrorism who frequently testifies before Congress. He was founding director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, among the world's leading research centers on terrorism. He also is chairman of the International Research Group on Political Violence, jointly sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Airey Neave Trust, London.

His latest book is Inside Terrorism (Columbia University Press). In addition, he is editor-in-chief of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism , the leading scholarly journal in the field.

In 1998 Hoffman was named the first winner of the Santiago Grisolia Prize and the accompanying chair in violence studies by the Queen Sofia Center for the Study of Violence, Valencia, Spain. He also is a recipient of the U.S. Intelligence Community Award Medallion.

His talk will be a special lecture in a Cornell class, Global Conflict and Terrorism, which was inaugurated following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Each week, speakers review and discuss issues concerning global development and its relationship to conflict and terrorism.