Terrorist Organizations and Weapons of Mass Destruction: U.S. Threats, Responses, and Policies, by Alethia H. Cook

(Available 13 October 2017)

Weapons of Mass Destruction are diverse and pose unique challenges to governments attempting to keep them out of the wrong hands and preparing to respond to an attack. This text analyzes Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) weapons and terrorist groups with a known interest in them. It presents accessible information about the technical challenges posed by each type of weapon, assesses the threats, and reviews the US governmental responses. It provides structured CBRN case studies and allows for easy comparison of threats, challenges, and responses. The text combines weapons and policy information in one comprehensive and comparative resource for researchers and students interested in key issues in modern terrorism and international security.

Dr. Olga Smirnova, with Tom Holt, have an article forthcoming in the American Behavioral Scientist. The article is titled “Examining the Geographic Distribution of Victim Nations in Stolen Data Markets.”

“The growth of electronic commerce and malicious software tools designed to compromise various payment systems and computer networks has led to concurrent increase in data breaches, phishing and hacking incidents targeting sensitive financial information. As a function of this increase, an underground market economy has developed around the sale of consumers’ bank account details and other financial information. Recent research examining data markets operating on the Open web demonstrate their basic functions and distribution of information sold. Emerging evidence suggests markets are now operating on the “Dark web” or encrypted web sites operating on Tor based networks. Little research to-date has compared the distribution of victim nations in stolen data markets, nor examined any variations between Open and dark web operations. This study utilizes a rational choice framework to examine this gap using a sample of 18 forums and 15 shops hosted on the Open-web and Tor. Using statistical analyses to examining the geography of victimization, this study provides a preliminary test of the applicability of rational choice theory to market operations.”

On September 11, 2017, Dr. Bonnie Mani traveled to Virginia Commonwealth University to give a presentation to their Ph.D. students. The title of her presentation was “Barriers and Facilitators to Successful Academic Careers: An Owner’s Manual.” In addition, because she completed her degree at VCU (in 1987), she met with Dean John J. Accordino of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs to discuss her subsequent academic career and experiences.

Carmine Scavo spent the last part of the summer working on the 2016 ANES SETUPS (American National Election Study Supplementary Empirical Teaching Unit in Political Science). This project seeks to teach undergraduate and graduate students basic data usage and data analysis skills using the 2016 American National Election Study. Scavo and co-author Charles Prysby of UNC-Greensboro reformat and recode the ANES to make it simpler for students to use to do their own data analysis.

See http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/instructors/setups2016/.

On the website, students are led through a series of exercises that gradually increase in sophistication leading them to develop their own research questions which they can analyze in the included data set. The project is sponsored by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan. The SETUPS project has been developed in the summer after a US presidential election since 1980. Prysby was an originator of the project and Scavo came on board in 1984. Early versions of the project were published as monographs with an accompanying data set; since 2004 the project has been completely online and includes online data analysis software for student and instructor use.

During 2017, Dr. John Williams presented two papers, “Saudi Arabia in Transition” for the Great Decisions program here at ECU, and ”Improving Decision Making and Cultural Understanding Through the Global Partners Program” at the Global Partners in Education Conference here at ECU. The latter will be included in the Proceedings for the conference.

In addition, Williams was nominated for Teacher of the Year in the Global Partners in Education Program. He also reviewed several articles on political factions in Middle Eastern countries.

Dr. Peter Francia attended the 2017 American Political Science Association’s annual conference in San Francisco (August 31-September 3). As a member of the American Political Science Association’s Committee on the Status of Contingent Faculty in the Profession, Francia gave a talk at the conference that addressed labor and educational concerns regarding the dramatic increases in the hiring of non-tenured and non-tenure-track faculty in universities and colleges nationwide. Francia, who co-authored the book, The Financiers of Congressional Elections, also served as a discussant on the panel entitled, “Donors and Spenders in U.S. Elections.”

Dr. Francia is the Director of the new THCAS Center for Survey Research.

Dr. Jonathan Morris has been asked to be the new director of ECU’s Leadership Studies Program. The Program, now several years old, has well over 100 minors and is attracting an increasing amount of attention within the university and from outsiders as well. Dr. Morris is also Political Science’s Undergraduate Director, and in the past 5 years and has been responsible for efforts that have resulted in a three-fold increase in the number of political science majors.

Join us in thanking Dr. Morris and wishing him luck in moving the program forward!

The Political Science Department is launching its first Study Abroad Program to Prague, Czech Republic, led by Dr. Giurcanu, “Prague in Context: Politics in East Central Europe” (June 16-July 28, 2018).

Why choose this program?

• Spend six weeks in a marvelous city — “Magic Prague” has something for everyone!
• Gain 6 credits that fulfill degree requirements in Political Science majors and minors, and in Russian Studies minor.
• Join us to Radio Free Europe, the Museum of Communism, Czech Parliament, the US Embassy, and many more.
• Enjoy affordable prices and student discounts in the heart of Europe!

Financial aid can be applied towards the cost of this program. ECU scholarships available @ piratesabroad.ecu.edu

Application deadline: January 1st

Program cost: $3,925.

Marie Olson Lounsberry will be serving as guest co-editor of a special issue of Peace and Change, with Karl DeRouen of the University of Alabama, on civil war mediation. The issue will be published in 2018. They will also be contributing an article on peace agreement provisions for that issue.

Dr. Olson Lounsberry has also been invited to submit an article on the effectiveness partial peace agreements, or those that do not include all rebel factions, for a special section of the International Peacekeeping journal. Karl DeRouen is special editor of that section.