The Institute of World Politics

About the Lecture: Over the past decade, China's emergence as a major maritime power has unsettled the status quo in Asia and beyond. By assessing the sources of Chinese seapower, this presentation will argue that China's seaward turn will pose a long-term challenge to U.S. maritime strategy.

About the book: The Terrorist Argument: Modern Advocacy and Propaganda, co-authored by Christopher C. Harmon and Randall G. Bowdish and published by Brookings Institution Press, is an entirely original study of the strategic communications of violent sub-state actors. The book exposes the surprising range of different media now in use by terrorists, including writing books and setting up television stations. It provides insights, observations, and conclusions reached in 9 case studies of media—of groups as different as secular Iranian dissidents, Islamists of ISIS and Al Qaeda, Filipino Maoists, and Irish militants.

About the author: Christopher C. Harmon inaugurated two of his earlier terrorism books in IWP lectures (2010, 2014). He taught evening courses on terrorism and counterterrorism at the Institute for more than a decade following 9/11/01. Dr. Harmon served on a congressional staff, has taught at a half-dozen graduate schools, directed terrorism studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, and held two academic chairs in Quantico, Virginia. His most recent articles are in the geopolitics journal Orbis, Oxford Bibliographies, and Combating Terrorism Exchange. Since 2012, Harmon also serves on the editorial board of the leading English-language terrorism journal, Terrorism & Political Violence.

About the Lecture: On the publication date of her book, Blood Profits: How American Consumers Unwittingly Fund Terrorists, Dr. Vanessa Neumann will talk about her travels around the Americas and how narcotics, corruption and other forms of illicit trade fund non-state armed groups and threaten good governance. The talk will cover Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Guatemala, drawing connections and distinctions between their challenges and their roles in international criminal networks.

About the Speaker: Vanessa Neumann provides expertise on political risk affecting investment in the Western Hemisphere. She is a consultant to funds totaling over $1T AUM. She is an entrepreneur with extensive relationships to identify reliable partners and bridge relationships across the Western Hemisphere's industry and governments. She is the owner and founder of Asymmetrica, an anti-illicit trade and government affairs consultancy that is part of the research network for the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate. She is a former advisor to the OECD's Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade, and a current P/CVE consultant to UN Women. In the 1990s, she conducted corporate planning and finance at Venezuelan petrochemicals conglomerate Corimon, through its NYSE IPO by Merrill Lynch. She lobbied US government for oil industry interests under Venezuela's Minister Counselor for Petroleum Affairs and helped bring first case before World Trade Organization. Returning to industry, she negotiated raw material price and payment terms with ICI, 3M, and DuPont to improve margins in petrochemicals manufacturing in 5 LatAm countries. She received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in theories of justice. She does field work in the reintegration of Colombian paramilitaries and research on LatAm security for think tanks. Currently, she is an academic reviewer for the US military's Special Operations Command, teaching text on counterinsurgency in Colombia. She is a fellow at FPRI and Yale, and associate at Columbia. She is author of the book, Blood Profits: How American Consumers Unwittingly Fund Terrorists, out December 5th, 2017.

About the Lecture: Mr. Tibor Babic will be talking about the events that were taking place immediately after the Socialist Republic of Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia to become an independent, autonomous, and sovereign state on June 25, 1991. He will talk about the war and the political process that took place in order for Slovenia to become a democratic nation governed by the will of its people. His hope is to give an another prospective, a prospective of people who experienced the war, who were on the battlefield, and in negotiation meetings. To present historical facts with emotions of the people during the war and immediately after the war ended.

About the Speaker: Tibor Babic was born in Maribor, Slovenia, and after graduating high school, he went to Vienna, Austria to study political science. His goal is to work in international relations, which is why he chose to attend The Institute of World Politics for graduate school, where he graduated in May 2017. His research areas at IWP concentrate on EU and US relations and world order.

About the Lecture:

Organizations combined are spending billions of dollars on information security tools. Based on news headlines this spending does not seem to be reaching the desired result. This talk will focus on important foundational business and Information Technology hygiene areas necessary to properly protect and defend your organization.

Darren Death PS 2

About the Speaker:

Darren Death has worked in information technology for over 17 years building and securing enterprise solutions primarily for the Government sector. As the Chief Information Security Officer, he is responsible for the ASRC Enterprise Cyber Security program which includes ASRC Federal and its parent company Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. In the role of Chief Information Security Officer, he manages the Cyber Security program across the 4Billion dollar ASRC portfolio crossing many business sectors to include Financial Services, Health Care, Construction, Retail, Energy, and Federal Government Contracting.

Follow Darren on Twitter: https://twitter.com/darrendeath

Follow Darren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrendeath/

About the lecture

The historical idea of Novorossiya in Russia, in regard to Ukraine, has been a manufactured reality for at least the last 250 years since it was first uttered. Before that, it was a concept that shaped attitudes about Ukraine, denying but not destroying a separate national existence, and implicit to Russo-centric historiography. During the Soviet period, it was used for state power, as attitudes became murder. Today, Novorossiya is invoked in the central government's denial campaign of the not-so-secret war with Ukraine. But where did it come from? And how has it been repackaged? And why does Putin not matter, ultimately? This presentation will seek to answer these questions and more through an investigation of eastern Ukraine, who is doing the fighting, and who really cares about this war.

About the speaker

Jarrod McDowell graduated from IWP in 2017 with an MA in National Security Affairs, with a focus on intelligence. He received his BS in History from Emmanuel College. During his time at IWP, he worked for TRAC as an Editorial Researcher. Today, he continues in a similar role as a DoD civilian.

About the Lecture: Lt. Col. Dave Blair (USAF) will discuss his book Chasing Jericho: Tactical Adaptation in the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron and the Eventual Sudden Collapse of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

On the 25th of March, 1807, the British Empire turned from the primary backer of the Atlantic Slave Trade to its most powerful adversary. Between that date and 1867, the year the last known Atlantic slave ship sailed, the British spent tens of millions of pounds and lost thousands of sailors in the course of suppressing the trade. Their foreign office bribed and pressured European sea-going powers into an international treaty network against the trade, backed by Royal Navy cruisers. Royal Navy officers built a network of treaties with leaders on the West African coast, similarly by way of economic incentives, pressure and at times, force. The British were willing to act unilaterally, even assaulting Brazilian slave ships at their moorings in the Americas. Amidst all of this, the perennially controversial effort faced vocal doubts as to its efficacy and social value, and was nearly called off in the late 1850s. The outcome of this campaign -- the eradication of the Atlantic Slave Trade -- is remarkable amongst illicit market suppression attempts for its clear success...

Without the campaign of the British Royal Navy against the Atlantic slave trade, which campaign is today largely forgotten, the immense work of William Wilberforce in declaring that trade illegal would likely have been meaningless as the slave trade would have continued much as before. More pertinent to the 21st century, the Royal Navy's strategy and tactics provide lessons that can prove useful in today's transnational security challenges.

About the Speaker: Lt. Col. Dave Blair (USAF) is a Senior Special Operations Aviation Advisor at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he works on emerging aviation technology, artificial intelligence, and competitive strategies. He is a proud graduate of a Small Technical College on the Front Range of the Rockies (Class of 2002); he also holds a Masters from Harvard and a Doctorate from Georgetown as a member of the first class of the CSAF's Prestigious PhD Program. He is an Evaluator Pilot in Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), with more than 2,000 combat hours in six theaters of combat in the AC-130 Spooky Gunship, MQ-1 Predator, and MQ-9 Reaper.

About the speaker:

Rebeccah Heinrichs is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute where she provides research and commentary on a range of national security issues, and specializes in nuclear deterrence, missile defense, and counter-proliferation.

Her work has appeared in major newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Times, and Investor’s Business Daily as well as political journals such as Politico and The Hill. She is a regular national security commentator on Fox News and Fox Business as well as other networks.

Rebeccah was the vice chairman of the John Hay Initiative's Counterproliferation Working Group, where she contributed to the group's book: Choosing To Lead. In this capacity she also provided counsel and briefings to governors, federal legislators, and presidential candidates.

Rebeccah served as an adviser on national security and foreign policy to Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and helped launch the bi-partisan Missile Defense Caucus.

She has testified before Congress and has presented to numerous organizations including the Aerospace Industries Association, the Reserve Officers Association, the National Defense Industrial Association, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

She holds an MA in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College. She also graduated with highest distinction from its College of Naval Command and Staff, receiving the Director’s Award for academic excellence. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ashland University in Ohio, and graduated from the Ashbrook Scholar Program.

Rebeccah currently resides in Arlington, Virginia with her husband and their children.

Radical Islam and Resettlement Jihad by The Institute of World Politics

Iran and the US Response with Dr. Douglas Streusand by The Institute of World Politics