Month: November 2019

Dr. Kassab’s new book, Terrorist Recruitment and the International System, is now available!

Recruitment is key to a terrorist network’s survival strategy. Steady enrollment is needed, not just to fight against perceived injustice, but to keep the network’s grand strategy alive. When a weak state fails to protect its territory and implement the rule of law because of corruption or incapacity, it results in the creation of power vacuums. Terrorist networks thrive within power vacuums and opportunistically fill the space where a weak state could not maintain control. This destabilizes the international system and forces great powers to intervene. Historically, interventions are ineffective in combatting terrorism and have actually increased recruitment through regional political destabilization. Further, interventions have drained the capabilities of states, allowing for shifts in the distribution of power, thus changing the international order. Understanding recruitment mechanisms is key to developing strategies to combat recruitment in the short and long term.

See: https://www.amazon.com/Terrorist-Recruitment-International-System-Kassab-ebook/dp/B081798BHM/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=hanna+kassab&qid=1574436650&sr=8-5

Political Science faculty have been busy sharing their insights with local media about the impeachment hearings and the 2020 elections.

Hugh Lee gave 3 interviews to about the impeachment hearings to WITN on September 25th, ECU News Services on September 27, and WCTI on November 13.

Jody Baumgartner and POLS students Bobby Fortune, Gavin Hockett and Tyler Polensky were also interviewed about impeachment by WITN’s Kathryn Dawson on November 15.

Peter Francia was interviewed by WNCT TV about the impact North Carolina could have on the 2020 elections on November 15.

Conventional Wisdom and American Elections: Exploding Myths, Exploring Misconceptions, by Drs. Baumgartner and Francia, is now officially in its 4th edition – and available!

From the book jacket: During every election cycle, political observers generate a seemingly limitless supply of theories, opinions, and predictions. Unfortunately, many of these assertions oversimplify complex subjects or over-hype the latest political fads. Inevitably, some misinformation becomes part of the conventional wisdom about American elections. The objective of this book is to bring clarity to several of these subjects.

See: https://smile.amazon.com/Conventional-Wisdom-American-Elections-Misconceptions/dp/1538129167/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=conventional+wisdom+baumgartner&qid=1574171420&sr=8-3

Olga Smirnova was invited for the North Carolina Local Government Budget Association summer conference (July) in Wilmington, NC.

Together with Jennifer Wolf from the City of Charlotte, they led the panel on “Green Investments for Public Facilities and Fleet”

See: http://nclgba.org/wordpress/nclgba19-recap-series-a-culture-of-high-performance/

 

Congratulations to Katie Nilges, a political science major and ECU graduate (2015). Katie was recently hired as the Director of Governmental Affairs and Legislative Liaison for the South Carolina Department of Education. In 2018, Katie received her law degree at the University of South Carolina.

 

Way to go, Katie!