Leadership

CIWAG is led by two co-directors, Naval War College professors with doctoral degrees and demonstrated excellence in teaching, publication, and research about Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups. A deputy director, the Special Operations Forces Chair, provides the link to the operational world in addition to assisting in the planning, programming, budgeting and execution of all CIWAG activities. Senior Associates to conduct and support research will be selected annually from qualified academics and practitioners. In addition, CIWAG will establish a Board of Advisors consisting of senior military leaders and civilian academics. The board will provide guidance and feedback to the co-directors and deputy director on priorities for improving and advancing government and community relations, professional and industry relations, communications, and resource development.

Co-Directors

Dr. Andrea J. Dew holds a B.A. (Hons.) in History from Southampton University in the United Kingdom, and an M.A.L.D. and Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Professor Dew has studied advanced Japanese at the Kyoto Japanese Language School, and has recently completed a study about risk management in U.S. and international commercial space policy. She is also the coauthor of a book on armed groups, entitled Insurgents, Terrorists, and Militias: The Warriors of Contemporary Combat (Columbia University Press, 2009). She has also served as a Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science in International Affairs at Harvard University, and Senior Counter-Terrorism Fellow at the Jebsen Center for Counter Terrorism Studies at the Fletcher School. Dr. Dew is the Co-Director of the Center on Irregular Warfare & Armed Groups at the Naval War College and is working on two studies concerning irregular warfare strategies on land and in the maritime environment.

Dr.  Marc A. Genest holds the Forrest Sherman Chair of Public Diplomacy in the Strategy and Policy Department and is Co-Director of the Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups (CIWAG) at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. He is also the Area Study Coordinator for the Insurgency and Terrorism electives program. In 2009, Genest received the Commander’s Award for Civilian Service from the Department of the Army for outstanding service as a Special Advisor to the Commander of Task Force Mountain Warrior while stationed in the eastern regional command of Afghanistan.  Dr. Genest earned his Ph.D. from Georgetown University in International Politics. Before coming to the Naval War College Professor Genest taught at Georgetown University, the U.S. Air War College and the University of Rhode Island.  While at the University of Rhode Island, Professor Genest received the University’s Teaching Excellence Award. He also serves as a political commentator for local radio and news stations as well as for R.I. and national print media. In addition, Dr. Genest worked on Capitol Hill for Senator John Chafee and Representative Claudine Schneider. Dr. Genest has received fellowships and grants from numerous organizations including the United States Institute of Peace, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the Harry S. Truman Foundation, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, Smith-Richardson Foundation and the Bradley Foundation. Professor Genest’s books include, Negotiating in the Public Eye: The Impact of the Press on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force Negotiations, Conflict and Cooperation: Evolving Theories of International Relations, and Stand! Contending Issues in World Politics. He has also written articles dealing with international relations theory, strategic communication, American foreign policy and public opinion.
 

Deputy Director

Captain Thomas C. Sass, United States Navy, reported to the Naval War College as the Special Operations Forces Chair in September 2007 after completing a tour as Commanding Officer SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team ONE in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He completed Basic Underwater SEAL Training in June 1988 with Class 151. He was subsequently assigned to SEAL Team THREE from 1988 to 1992 where he served as a SEAL Platoon Commander. Upon completion of the Basic Italian Language Course at the Defense Language Institute in 1993, he was assigned as an Exchange Officer with the Italian Naval Commando Unit in La Spezia, Italy. He returned to the Naval Special Warfare Center in 1995 for SEAL Delivery Vehicle School and follow-on assignment to SEAL Delivery Vehicle Task Unit Commander and Department Head on board the USS JAMES K. POLK (SSN 645). From August 1998 to December 2000, he served as an operations and plans officer on the Joint Staff in the Operations Directorate, Special Operations Division. In January 2001, he reported to Naval Special Warfare Unit TWO, the maritime component command of Special Operations Command Europe, as the Executive Officer. From January 2002 to June 2003, he served as the Flag Aide to the Commander, United States Naval Forces Europe and Commander in Chief, Allied Forces South. Capt. Sass earned a Masters of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1998. He completed his duties as the U. S. Navy Admiral Arthur S. Moreau Scholar while assigned to the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University from June 2003 to July 2005 where he earned a Masters of Law and Diplomacy and completed requirements for a Ph.D. (ABD).
 

Co-Chairs

Professor Richard H. Shultz is Director of the International Security Studies Program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He teaches such courses as "The Role of Force in International Relations," "The Evolution of Military Doctrines" and "Intelligence and National Security." During 1994-95 he was the recipient of the Olin Distinguished Professorship of National Security Studies at the United States Military Academy. Professor Shultz has held various fellowships, including those from the Secretary of the Navy, the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University; the Earhart Foundation; and the United States Institute of Peace. He has written and edited books and articles, among them The Secret War Against Hanoi: Kennedy and Johnson's Use of Spies, Saboteurs, and Covert Warriors in North Vietnam (1999); In The Aftermath of War: U.S. Support for Reconstruction and Nation-Building in Panama Following Just Cause (1993); The United States Army: Challenges and Missions (1991); and Power, Principles & Interests: A Reader in World Politics ed., (1985).

Dr. Roy Godson was elected president of the National Information Center in 1993. He is also Professor Emeritus of Government at Georgetown University. In cooperation with the Board of Directors, Godson directs the Center’s policy and programs. Dr. Godson has developed and managed educational and training programs on several continents, consulting extensively with governments, private sector organizations, and the United Nations’ Office on Drug and Crime. He has also been working with educational officials, mass media, and religious institutions in Central and South America, the Caucuses, and the Middle East on the development of educational programs to prevent political violence, crime and corruption by building and supporting a culture of lawfulness. He has authored or edited more than 20 books and numerous articles on a variety of security-related subjects, most recently Menace To Society, Political-Criminal Collaboration Around the World; and Organized Crime and Democratic Governability: Mexico and the US – Mexican Borderlands. He is the founding editor of the quarterly journal Trends in Organized Crime.

Senior Associates

Colonel David A. Brown, U.S. Army, is a designated Army Strategist who holds a B.A. in Philosophy, a diploma from D.L.I. for studies in the Greek language, a diploma from the Army‘s Command and General Staff College, an M.S. from Long Island University in Counseling and Leader Development, a M.M.A.S. from the Army‘s School of Advanced Military Studies Program, and a M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College. Col. Brown‘s career spans over 24 years in Field Artillery units and a variety of command and staff positions in the United States and overseas. His operational experience includes nuclear weapons programs, combat experience in Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, frequent visits to Bosnia and Kosovo and operational planning experience at battalion, brigade, division and theater levels, where he served as 1st Armored Division Chief of Plans and Chief of Contingency Plans for United States Army Europe. Col. Brown also served as a Tactical Officer at the U.S. Military Academy, and commanded the U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Wainwright, Alaska. He is a recipient of the James D. Forrestal Award for excellence in Strategy and Force Planning and a graduate of the Institute of Counter-Terrorism‘s Executive Studies Program at Herzliya, Israel. He has lectured on armed groups and counterterrorism, as well as on ethics, theology and history, and is the author of Intifada and The Blood of Abraham, Lessons in Asymmetrical Warfare—Written in Stone, published by the Association of the United States Army‘s Institute of Land Warfare. After two years teaching Strategy and Policy, Col. Brown served as the senior military advisor and team chief for 15 Military Transition Teams advising the 2nd Iraqi Army Division in 2008.

Dr. Donald Chisholm, joined the faculty of the Naval War College in 2000. Previously, he taught at the University of Illinois, Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles, after earning his A.B., M.A., and PhD. in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research has examined the planning and execution of military operations; cognitive and organizational limits on rationality; organizational adaptation and innovation; organizational failure and reliability; and privatization of public activities. He is the author of Waiting for Dead Men’s Shoes: Origins and Development of the U.S. Navy’s Officer Personnel System, 1793–1941 (Stanford University Press, 2001), which received the 2001 RADM Samuel Eliot Morison Award.

Dr. Frank “Scott” Douglas earned his PhD from Columbia University’s Political Science department, where he focused on the use of air power for compellence in Bosnia and Kosovo and on developing strategies to coerce authoritarian regimes. Prof. Douglas also holds an MA from Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, where he concentrated in Strategic Studies, and a BSFS degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. In addition, he earned a regional studies certificate in East & Central Europe from Columbia’s Harriman Institute and received a Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship for Serbo-Croatian. In addition to his scholarly work, he has served as an election observer in Bosnia and as the director of a volunteer English teaching program in the Czech Republic. He is currently working on a manuscript entitled Creative Violence: Coercive Theory and NATO’s Victory in Bosnia, as well as a new project analyzing the United States' and Al-Qaeda's struggle to define the nature of the Global War on Terror to their advantage. Prof. Douglas is also a direct commission Naval Reserve Intelligence Officer, who served from 2009-2010 as a mobilized reservist in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as supporting the CNO's Strategic Studies Group for seven years.

Dr. Stephen Downes-Martin has extensive experience in developing and applying war gaming, game theory, decision analysis, and systems thinking to hard military problems, with a track record of delivering concrete operational results. He has successfully worked with a wide variety of government, military, aerospace, and commercial organizations in the U.S. and abroad. Stephen is currently a Research Professor at the U.S. Naval War College. His education includes a Ph.D. from London University, M.A. from the U.S. Naval War College (JPME Phase I), and industrial and academic courses in business management, science and technology, and liberal arts. Stephen has published widely, and has been an invited speaker in the U.S., Europe and the former Soviet Union on business, international security and technology issues. He is a U.S. citizen with a TS/SCI clearance.

Dr. Timothy D. Hoyt earned his undergraduate degrees from Swarthmore College, and his Ph.D. in International Relations and Strategic Studies from The Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in 1997. At Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, 1998-2002, he taught graduate courses on security in the developing world, South Asian security, technology and international security, and military strategy. In October 2003, he testified before two subcommittees of the House Committee on International Relations regarding terrorism in South and Southwest Asia. Dr. Hoyt’s recent publications include chapters and articles on the war on terrorism in South Asia, the limits of military force in the global war on terrorism, the impact of culture on military doctrine and strategy, military innovation and warfare in the developing world, and the impact of nuclear weapons on recent crises in South Asia. He is the author of Military Industries and Regional Defense Policy: India, Iraq and Israel. He is currently working on a book on American military strategy in the 21st Century, a study of the strategy of the Irish Republican Army from 1913-2005, a series of projects examining US relations with India and Pakistan, and analyses of irregular warfare and terrorism in South Asia.

Dr. Colin F. Jackson studied at the University of Pennsylvania‘s Wharton School (M.B.A., Finance), Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (M.A., International Economics and Strategic Studies), Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson A-6 School (B.A., Public and International Affairs), and MIT (Ph.D., Political Science—Security Studies). Dr. Jackson‘s current research includes work on counterinsurgency, military operations in urban terrain, public and private sector risk management, organizational learning, and intelligence operations. Dr. Jackson worked for several years in the corporate sector in financial trading, telecommunications, transportation markets, and power development. He also served four years on active duty with the United States Army in Germany as an armor and cavalry officer. Dr. Jackson continues to serve as a military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Dr. Heidi E. Lane is Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy and faculty advisor for Greater Middle East Regional Studies Area of Study at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. She has conducted extensive field research in the Middle East, including as research affiliate with the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and as a U.S. Fulbright scholar in Syria. She is currently a research fellow with the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University where she is completing research on a book manuscript about the effects of counterterrorism programs on state liberalization in the Middle East. Her areas of specialization are ethnic and religious nationalism, insurgency and terrorism, and de-radicalization. She was also a visiting instructor in the Department of Government, Claremont-McKenna College before joining the US Naval War College in 2003. Dr. Lane holds a M.A and Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the Center for Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Los Angeles and a B.A. from the University of Chicago. She is trained in Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian.

Dr. Michael F. Pavkovic received his B.A. in History and Classics from the Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Before joining the Naval War College, he served as an associate professor of history at Hawaii Pacific University, where he also coordinated the programs in Diplomacy and Military Studies. He has presented papers at national and international conferences and has also published a number of articles, book chapters, and reviews on topics relating to ancient, early modern, and Napoleonic military history. He is co-author of What is Military History? and is currently completing a book on the Punic Wars. He has held summer fellowships at West Point in Military History and at Harvard University‘s Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies.

Commander John Pucciarelli, U.S. Navy, is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross with a B.A. in History. He holds an M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College. As a Surface Warfare Officer, he has served in frigates, combat logistics force and aircraft carriers. He has extensive staff, operational, and command-level experience in Anti-terrorism / Force Protection (AT/FP), Inspector General, law enforcement, correctional custody, and Enemy Combatant Detention Operations. His most recent tour was as Commanding Officer of Naval Consolidated Brig Charleston, with responsibility for the confinement of up to 400 multi-service prisoners, as well as maintaining the sole U.S.-based facility housing Enemy Combatants under the Laws of War. CDR Pucciarelli also serves as a Senior Associate with the Naval War College Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups (CIWAG).

Dr. Joshua Rovner holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is an alumnus of the MIT Security Studies Program. He also studied at Boston College (M.A., Political Science) and the University of California, San Diego (B.A., Political Science). Prior to joining the Naval War College, he was the Stanley Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellow in Leadership Studies at Williams College. He has also taught courses on international relations and American foreign policy at Clark University and the College of the Holy Cross. Dr. Rovner is currently editing a book manuscript, entitled Fixing the Facts: National Security and the Politics of Intelligence, and has recently begun research on deterrence theory and emerging nuclear powers.

Dr. Michael Vlahos is a graduate of Yale University and holds an M.A.L.D. and Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He has served in the United States Navy and the CIA, and as Director of the Center for the Study of Foreign Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He was Director of Security Studies at SAIS-Johns Hopkins. He is the author of The Blue Sword: The Naval War College and the American Mission, and most recently Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change. His research focus is the interplay between war and culture in the dynamics of historical change — highlighted in the policy debate by articles such as “Culture and Foreign Policy” (Foreign Policy, 1990), “The War After Byte City” Washington Quarterly, 1997), “Terror’s Mask: Insurgency Within Islam” (JHUAPL, 2002), and “The Fall of Modernity” (American Conservative, 2007). In 2010 he developed a war-gaming approach to explore the interaction of cultural change and climate change, called “Ashen Truths” — which was conducted at the War College in July.

Dr. Toshi Yoshihara is an associate professor in the Strategy and Policy Department at the Naval War College. Previously, he was a visiting professor in the Strategy Department at the Air War College. Dr. Yoshihara has also served as an analyst at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, RAND, and the American Enterprise Institute. His research interests include U.S. alliances in the Asia-Pacific region, China’s military modernization, Chinese naval strategy, guerilla warfare at sea, and Japan’s defense policy. He is co-author of Chinese Naval Strategy in the Twenty-first Century: The Turn to Mahan (2008), co-editor of Asia Looks Seaward: Power and Maritime Strategy (2008), and co-author of Indian Naval Strategy in the Twenty-first Century (2009). His articles on maritime and naval strategy have appeared in Journal of Strategic Studies, Comparative Strategy, Orbis, Naval War College Review, American Interest, and Joint Forces Quarterly. Dr. Yoshihara holds a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, an M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, and a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Research Associates