Kurt Taylor Gaubatz,associate professor of political science, has received a $239,000, six-month grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the use of statistical tools for analyzing terrorist networks. Working through the Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center, Professor Gaubatz will lead a team of eight prominent social scientists and statisticians from around the country in analyzing several newly scrubbed and declassified real-world datasets on terrorist networks. The results of this project are expected to help the Defense Department and other intelligence agencies build analytic tools to more effectively piece together the structure of clandestine terror netorks from the fragmentary data that is the inevitable product of the intelligence process.

David C. Earnest, assistant professor of political science and international studies, received the ODU Instructional Technology Teaching Award at the Faculty Award Banquet on May 2, 2006.  Dr. Earnest also received a 2006 Faculty Innovator Grant from ODU along with Ghaith Rabadi (Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering) for their new course 'Beyond the Butterfly Effect: An Introduction to Simulation.'"

Jack Covarrubias has co-authored with Robert J. Pauly (Ph.D. 2001) and Tom Lansford (Ph.D. 1999) To Protect and Defend:  U.S. Homeland Security Policy, published in July 2006 by Ashgate.

James D. Medler, Ph.D. '04, wrote "Afghan Heroin:  Terrain, Tradition, and Turmoil," published in Orbis (Spring 2005, pp. 275-291). 

Perspectives in Sociology and Indian Diaspora, edited by Ajay Kumar Sahoo and published by Rawat, New Delhi. 

Jim Pelkofski, a doctoral student and a captain in the U.S. Navy, wrote "Before the Storm: al Qaeda's Coming Maritime Campaign," published in the December 2005 issue of the Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute.  .

Funmi Adesanya began a one-semester internship in October at the State Department, working with the global AIDS coordinator.  

Anna Makhorkina, a doctoral student, wrote "Ukrainian political parties and foreign policy in election campaigns: Parliamentary elections of 1998 and 2002," for the June 2005 issue of Communist and Post-Communist Studies. 

Dawn Bali, a doctoral student, has a State Department internship to work on proliferation issues.

Eva Sigmon, a doctoral student, and Ana Icayan (MA graduate) have started work for Science Applications International Corporation on a job at NATO's Allied Command Transformation Headquarters in Norfolk.

Evan Campbell won a Graduate Fellowship for 2005-06. 

Sonja Sray won a Dissertation Fellowship for 2005-06. 

Anouar Boukhars, an August 2005 graduate, has accepted a job as an assistant professor at Wilberforce University. 

David C. Earnest, assistant professor of political science and international studies, co-authored On the Cutting Edge of Globalization: An Inquiry into American Elites, which was published in September 2005 by Rowman & Littlefield.  His co-authors were James N. Rosenau, Yale H. Ferguson and Ole R. Holsti. The book is the first systematic study of the orientations of American elites to the multifaceted processes of globalization; it takes a unique look at the attitudes of American elites before and after 9/11, revealing that this important event had surprisingly little impact on elite support for multilatleralism in U.S. foreign policy. On July 24, 2005, the Virginian-Pilot published his op-ed, "Isolating our Military: Encroachment and Economics Aren't the Whole Oceana Story." 

Robert H. Holden, associate professor of history, read a paper, "By What Authority?  The Improvisational State in Latin America," at the Social Science History Assn. meeting in Portland, OR on November 5, 2005. 

Simon Serfaty, professor of political science, edited Visions of the Atlantic Alliance, published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington; he contributed a chapter on the United States and Europe.  His recent talks include "A Challenged and Challenging Europe," International Conference, Isituto Affari Internazionali, Rome (November 21, 2005); "Europe Stalled, America Challenged," Royal Institute for International Relations, Brussels (December 5, 2005); "The Vital Partnership," DACOR House, Washngton, DC (December 9, 2005); "The United States and Europe at Half Past Bush," Institut des Hautes Etudes de Defense Nationale, Paris (January 6, 2006).  Posted February 7, 2006.

Steve A. Yetiv, Professor of Political Science and International Studies, wrote "The Travails of Balancing Theory: The United States and the Middle East (1975-2004)," in Security Studies (Winter 2006), and "Why Strategic Global Oil Stocks Matter for the International Economy"  Energy Journal (Winter 2006).   Recently he was quoted on security and energy issues in the Associated Press, Bloomberg, USAToday.com, MSNBC.com, CBS.com and other national outlets.  His Crude Awakenings:  Global Oil Security and American Foreign Policy (Ithaca:  Cornell University Press, 2004), won a Choice award for outstanding academic book in December 2005. Posted January 16, 2006. 

Maria Pinto Carlan Associate Director, Master of Science in Foreign Service Program, GeorgetownUniversity March 29-30, 2006 "Interviewing and Networking for Careers in International Affairs" and "Preparing for Oral Assessments:  A Group Exercise"

This will be a problem solving simulation to prepare applicants for the State Department's foreign service exam and similar oral assessment procedures that applicants for jobs in international career fields increasingly encounter.  Employers are finding that applicants' transcripts, resumes and interviews may identify them as high achievers, but reveal very little about interpersonal skills, which are crucial in a world where working in teams is so common. 

In this exercise, six GPIS students will be observed while engaging in a group effort, under tight time constraints, to negotiate a satisfactory outcome.  The exercise will simulate an Embassy meeting where staffers have to choose between proposals.  What happens is less important than how the participants make it happen.  The whole exercise will take about an hour, and then for about half an hour Prof. Carland will provide feedback to the students on the individual and group interactions.  Participants and audience members will also have the chance to comment on the experience. 

Students who wish to attend either of these sessions are urged to read Prof. Carland's Careers in International Affairs, which is on reserve at the circulation desk of Perry Library:  ask for call number JZ1238.U6 C37 2003

Maria Pinto Carland is editor of the award-winning guidebook, Careers in International Affairs (1991, 1997, 2003). She has played a leading role as first chairperson for the Career Officers of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, career counselor for the International Career Advancement Program for mid-career professionals of color, on scholarship selection committees and mid-career promotion boards for the U.S. Department of State and the Agency for International Development, and as a consultant for the Institute of International Education's Goldman Sachs Global Leadership Program.  Before joining Georgetown, Ms. Carland served on the staff of the Patterson School of International Diplomacy and Commerce of the University of Kentucky and the Graduate History Department of the University of Toronto, the US-United Nations Association and the Foreign Policy Association.

Scott Brunstetter, Presidential Management Fellow, HQ INSCOM.  Mr. Brunstetter is a Presidential Management Fellow with the US Army's Intelligence and Security. He has an MA in History from West Virginia University and is ABD at the Graduate Program in International Studies at ODU. From August 2001 to December 2002, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, Germany. He has taught at the Joint Forces Staff College, Old Dominion University and West Virginia University.

Dr. John Heyl, Executive Director of International Programs, Old Dominion University.  Dr. John Heyl is a Professor of History and the Executive Director of International Programs at Old Dominion University.  His current publications and presentations concentrate on methods of attracting international students and seeking external funding sources for international programs.  For the last two decades, he has been teaching history to students across the United States, while winning prestigious awards for his administrative excellence.  Dr. Heyl has received a number of honors and fellowships, including both Fullbright and Woodrow Wilson Fellowships. 

Dr. George Hodermarsky, Program Manager, Contract Support for Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) Experimentation Campaign.  Dr. Hodermarsky is a Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired) with over 29 years active duty experience in progressively responsible command and staff positions as a Joint Specialty Officer, operational squadron commanding officer, strategic planner, Naval Flight Officer, and intelligence analyst.  He possesses over six years of direct experience since departing uniformed service in joint concept development and experimentation. He leads a multinational team of 22 Project Managers, Experimenters, Concept Developers and Analysts in the formulation and development of operational concepts and the requisite experimentation and analysis of related events.  The team makes significant contributions to the overall mission of SACT as NATO's forcing agent for change.

Maury Bonner, Intelligence Analyst, United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Mr. Bonner has spent the last two and a half years working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an intelligence analyst.  He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in International Studies at Old Dominion University working on his dissertation.  Mr. Bonner obtained his Masters Degree from Old Dominion University in 2000 and his Bachelor's Degree from College of the Holy Cross in political science.  

Professors Chen and Gaubatz receive ODU research grants