United States Higher Education & National Security

Dlynn Williams, Ph.D

Dr. Dlynn Williams came to North Georgia College (as it was then known) in 1997 after completing her Ph.D. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her graduate work focused on international security, East Asian politics, comparative foreign policy and international relations theory. Throughout her time at the University of North Georgia (UNG), Dr. Williams has received awards in both teaching and scholarship. She has been recognized for her internationalization efforts nationally. Due to her strong interest in internationalization she served as the founding Director of UNG’s Center for Global Engagement (CGE) and currently serves as the Department Head of the Political Science & International Affairs Department.

Edward Mienie, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Strategic Studies Program & Partnerships and Professor of Strategic & Security Studies
Area(s) of Expertise: Strategic & Security Studies; State Fragility; Politics of Africa

Mienie has more than 20 years of experience working in international relations and business, media relations, and coalition building. He earned a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of South Africa and received his doctorate in international conflict management while teaching and leading the academic exchange program with South Africa at Kennesaw State University.

Cristian Harris, Ph.D.

Master of Arts in International Affairs, Program Coordinator
Area(s) of Expertise: International Political Economy, Comparative Global Development, Latin American Politics, Global Governance

Dr. Harris has been working at UNG (formerly NGCSU) since 2005. Previously, Dr. Harris worked in universities in the U.S. states of Delaware (University of Delaware), New Jersey (The College of New Jersey), Texas (University of Texas at Austin), and the province of Ontario in Canada (Queen's University at Kingston). He also worked in the private sector both in the non-profit and corporate private sector.

Dr. Harris is the program coordinator for the Master of Arts in International Affairs (MAIA) program.

An accomplished academic, teacher and mentor, he received UNG’s highest award - the Distinguished Teaching Award - in 2018. In addition, he received the NGCSU Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009; Outstanding Academic Advisor awards in 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2016; and was named an SGA Outstanding Faculty Member in 2008. In 2019 the Georgia Political Science Association awarded him its McBrayer Award for best paper presented at its 2018 annual conference.

His research interests include the role of U.S. universities in public diplomacy, the comparative development of Settler Societies, and the Political Economy of Latin America in the Twentieth Century.

Craig Greathouse, Ph.D.

Professor, Associate Department Head
Area(s) of Expertise: Security and Defense Policy, European Politics

Dr. Craig Greathouse joined UNG in the Fall of 2007 with the introduction of the International Affairs major. He received his degree B.A. and M.A. in political science from the University of Akron and his Ph.D. in political science from the Claremont Graduate School in 1999. His fields of expertise are security and defense policy and European politics; he teaches numerous courses in these areas at the undergraduate and graduate level. He has had several articles published on defense and security policy and on European politics.

While at UNG he has twice been recognized with Information Literacy grants for innovative teaching within the classroom. Currently he is the graduate advisor to all students in the M.A. in International Affairs program and to students in the European concentration for the International Affairs major. Dr. Greathouse spends part of his free time designing and running simulations of the international system. He has helped design and present these simulations to the National Defense University, teachers groups, and elements of the U.S. military.

Dr. Daniel S. Papp

Consultant, Pendleton Group & Scholar of International Affairs and Policy,
Former President of Kennesaw State University

Dr. Daniel S. Papp retired as President of Kennesaw State University (KSU) in 2016.  Since his retirement, he has served as President of Papp Consulting LLC.

During his 10 years as president, Papp led the consolidation of KSU and Southern Polytechnic State, making KSU one of the 50 largest U.S. universities; initiated its first doctoral programs; led KSU’s first capital campaign; added over $500 million of facilities; guided KSU into NCAA Division I athletics including intercollegiate football; expanded KSU’s external funded research; and doubled KSU’s study abroad program, including opening KSU’s first international campus.

Before becoming KSU President, Papp was Senior Vice Chancellor for Academics and Fiscal Affairs of the University System of Georgia (USG); Interim President of Southern Polytechnic; Executive Assistant to the President of Georgia Tech; Founding Director of Tech’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs; and Director of Tech’s School of Social Sciences.

Papp has been Senior Research Scholar at both the Center for Aerospace Doctrine of the Air War College and the Strategic Studies Institute of the Army War College.  The Army twice awarded him the “Outstanding Civilian Service” medal.  He also has been Visiting Professor at Western Australia Institute of Technology in Perth; Visiting Professor at Fudan University in Shanghai; and led study abroad programs to the Soviet Union, France, Germany, and Italy.   

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College, Dr. Papp earned his Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami.  He is the author, co-author, or editor of 14 books and over 80 articles on U.S. and Soviet/Russian foreign policy and international relations, including former Secretary of State Dean Rusk’s autobiography, As I Saw It.

Jacek Dworzecki

Jacek Dworzcecki is a professor at the Military University of Land Forces in Wroclaw and the Academy Police Force in Bratyslava. He was also a former police oficer. He has authored over two hundred scientific papers about security, combating crime, criminology. He is also the head of the Polish and Slovak research teams in the frame of international scientific project.

Izabela Nowicka

Izabela Nowicka is an associate professor at the Military University of Land Forces in Wroclaw. A former police oficer and an author of scientific papers about security, criminal law, military law, and criminology. She is a member of Polish and Slovak research teams in the frame of international scientific project.

Participation of Polish military universities in education for security as a task of the Polish national security system.

Security itself is an eternal and important need and allows the freedom to fully develop all the attributes humanity. The genesis of security, on the other hand, can be traced back to a sense of direct danger in an unfamiliar natural environment and the resulting dangers. As long as the social perception is that the surrounding phenomena have little negative impact on the existence of individuals, they feel secure. The assessment of one's own capacities is a decisive factor in determining which anxieties-threats are considered insignificant by society. Trends and new developments in contemporary education are largely determined by socio-economic changes. Both positive and negative phenomena can be seen here.

This article analyses the Polish system of education for security and aims to answer the question whether it fulfils the task of the Polish national security system in a situation of global crises and related pathologies. Such an approach forced the necessity to pay attention to the problems of the system of education for safety in Poland, to the contemporary threats facing man.They require him to be constantly aware of them and to learn how to deal with them. Threats that have not existed before or that have existed for a long time should not be underestimated, as it is possible to prepare for them and thus ensure the safety of a society, a group or an individual. Education in this area becomes the guarantor of the above. A scientific exploration of the issue points to the importance of people's awareness of the consequences of hazards. The most glaring example is the covid-19 pandemic. It has created a multifaceted crisis that has gone beyond public health concerns. It now touches almost all dimensions of collective life, from economic to social, political and cultural issues. This phenomenon has already changed our perception of the reality around us and of interpersonal interactions, in both private and public dimensions, and in particular the security dimension. The most structured deepening of knowledge and public awareness of security takes place within the education system. The school subject of safety education is one element of the compulsory education that every pupil must receive.

At present, safety education is carried out at school, through projects undertaken by the various services and guards and the military, as well as through associations and NGOs. Irrespective of education in this field in primary schools, the entities involved in activities related to learning for safety are universities, including military universities. They provide undergraduate and graduate education in fields such as national security, internal security and public safety. The analysis conducted for the purpose of this publication was based on the available literature on the subject, legal acts, media reports and several expert interviews with soldiers and civilian personnel of the armed forces dealing with security education issues.

Shannon Vaughn

Shannon Vaughn is the General Manager of Virtru Federal, a global leader in data encryption, privacy and protection. As the General Manager of Virtru Federal, Shannon leads the business development, operations, and delivery of Virtru’s U.S. and international federal engagements. Prior to joining the company, Shannon served in multiple leadership roles, including VP of Technology, Chief Product Owner, and Chief Innovation Officer.

Shannon is also a U.S. Army intelligence officer with 18 years of service and currently serves at Army Futures Command in the Reserves. Previously he served as a Defense Intelligence Agency Reserve Attaché with seven embassy support tours across East Asia and Oceania.

Shannon is a world traveler always in pursuit of knowledge, visiting 49 states, 56 countries, and 6 continents. Shannon is a graduate of the University of North Georgia and the Department of Defense Language Institute. He is married to his wife Christy and has two wonderful young children. 

Shannon will speak on the importance of cultural development and understanding from his personal experience.

Understanding China Through Immersion: An Anomaly Story

In my nearly 18 years in the Army, I have met impossibly smart, hardworking U.S. Soldiers who go the extra mile to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. And to a fault, save maybe a handful of those, they lacked the cultural understanding necessary to effectively interpret the mind of the average Peoples Liberation Army Soldier. That is not to say, every Soldier needs to be a China scholar. But even Foreign Area Officers for China often lack the requisite skills necessary.

There is a litany of reasons why, but I think it comes down to two mains buckets:

• hard problems take time to learn (and we do not start people early enough);
• the military does not reward specialists.

North Georgia is one of a handful of universities that I know that puts students through language programs and works to get them overseas quickly and for longer than a semester. But if you add up all those programs you may have a few hundred students get face-to-face time, in-country immersed in the language for more than a few months (one semester).

My story is the anomaly—not the norm. But it’s worth highlighting how many anomalies had to happen for my story to work:

I was born into a family where my parents adopted four of my siblings from China starting when I was 12 years old. I unfortunately did not start studying Chinese in earnest, however, until I was 20 years old—and that is only thanks to the University of North Georgia-Defense Language Institute program, where I was the first person to graduate. Then North Georgia created an exchange program with Tsinghua University—I finish my last semester in Beijing taking classes with locals. From there I was pushed through conventional Army training and would never been asked about China. Instead, I moved to Washington D.C. to seek a job as a translator---my language still was not good enough, so I moved back to Beijing to work at a local hospital in the information technology department.

After graduating the Army’s Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course, I fortunately knew someone in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Reserve Attaché program and applied when I was an Army lieutenant. I was rejected as the program only accepted Army majors and above. I applied again after meeting the right DIA civilian who valued in-country cultural experience over rank. Finally, I was admitted to the unit. For the next nine years I focused solely on China. I did seven support tours to embassies in Asia. I wrote more reports than any other attaché in the military that decade. I believe there is a need to start cultural immersion/languages earlier and create paths for subject matter experts at the start of their Army careers.

Iyonka Strawn-Valcy

Iyonka Strawn-Valcy is the Director of Global Operations at the Georgia Institute of Technology. With 20+ years of experience in non-profit administration and international higher education leadership, she provides leadership and strategic operational guidance to Georgia Tech’s international enterprises and is particularly active in the development of Georgia Tech’s campuses in Lorraine, France and Shenzhen, China. A doctoral candidate in UNG’s 2021 Higher Education Leadership and Practice Ed.D. program, Strawn-Valcy holds a master’s degree in psychology and a graduate certificate in student affairs law and policy from Florida International University.

Ms. Strawn-Valcy’s presentation will detail how research-intensive universities are navigating today’s challenging geopolitical environment while enacting internationalization strategies to foster innovation and global collaboration.

Magdalena Bogacz

Magdalena Bogacz is an Assistant Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Air University’s Global College. Dr. Bogacz holds a Global Executive Doctorate in Education from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and a Master of Arts in Philosophy from KU Leuven in Belgium. Hence, her research is multidisciplinary and explores the social and psychological elements of education, with a specific focus on inequities in faculty socialization and the motivational factors that impact organizational culture and change. Her most recent project draws on her background in philosophy to examine how Just War Theory can incorporate the Aristotelian view on the proper telos of war, that is, peace. Dr. Bogacz holds a Global Executive Doctorate in Education from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and a Master of Arts in Philosophy from KU Leuven in Belgium.

Dr. Bogacz’s presentation will draw from her dissertation research on how higher education can improve faculty socialization practices to enhance institutional diversity, thereby improving innovation and cutting-edge research that can support national security.

Crystal Shelnutt

Crystal Shelnutt is a Senior Lecturer in the University College at the University of West Georgia. She holds an Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership and Practice from the University of North Georgia, an M.A. in English from the University of West Georgia, and an M.B.A. from Kennesaw State University. Dr. Shelnutt’s research interests include business and professional communication, innovation in higher education, work-based and experiential learning, and the nexus between formal education practices and cultural competencies.

Dr. Shelnutt’s presentation, based on three years of ongoing research, will outline the skills essential for innovation in the 21st century - including intercultural awareness, critical thinking, and communication - and the current institutional barriers to developing such vital competencies in undergraduate students.

Michael Lanford, Ph.D

Michael Lanford is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of North Georgia. His teaching and research explores the social dimensions of education, with specific attention to equity, globalization, institutional innovation, organizational culture, and qualitative methods. In April 2022, his first book, entitled Creating a Culture of Mindful Innovation in Higher Education, will be published by SUNY Press. Additionally, Dr. Lanford has written approximately 30 articles and book chapters for scholarly publications such as the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Higher Education, Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, and Qualitative Inquiry. He has received funding to present his research in Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Eric Toler

Executive Director of the Georgia Cyber Center

Eric Toler joined Augusta University in 2018 as Executive Director of the Georgia Cyber Center. Mr. Toler previously served in the U.S. Army as a Military Intelligence Officer, retiring with over 27 years of leadership and national security experience. During his military career, he was a pioneer in leading and developing cyberspace operations capabilities for the Army and Department of Defense, serving in key positions within Army Cyber Command, U.S. Cyber Command, and the National Security Agency.

In his role as Executive Director of the Georgia Cyber Center, Mr. Toler is responsible for fulfilling the mission of the Georgia Cyber Center, which is to create an ecosystem of collaboration that helps solve our state’s and our nation’s most challenging cybersecurity problems through innovative education, training, research, and practical applications between private and public industries. He works with a multitude of partners from government, academia, and private industry to help develop the professional workforce required to secure our state and our nation in cyberspace.

In addition to numerous military schools and training, Mr. Toler holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Henderson State University, a Master of Public Administration from the University of Kansas, and a Master of Science in National Security Strategy from National Defense University. He has numerous military awards and decorations, to include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and two Bronze Star Medals 

Greg Parlier, Ph.D., Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)

Adjunct professor of Operations Research at North Carolina State University
President, GH Parlier Consulting

Dr. Parlier will discuss how can we address, in imaginative and creative ways, the many persisting problems and seemingly intractable national and global security challenges that confront us? To fully capitalize on advances in information technologies, the complementary power of Operations Research, data sciences, and management innovation will be essential. Accordingly, “Strategic Analytics", the alignment of optimization methods, predictive models, and descriptive techniques with the ends-ways-means strategy paradigm, is presented. Enabling disciplines and functional components are described, "engines for innovation” to encourage and guide transformational endeavors are explored, and applications to major enterprise challenges are presented. Strategic Analytics can be the crucial innovation enabler for government, academic, and industry leaders to better integrate our intellectual capacities, considerable strategic planning acumen, diverse analytical capabilities, and bring them all to bear on formidable national defense and international security challenges of our time.

Greg is a West Point graduate who was a paratroop commander in the 82nd Airborne Division for 8 years, air-ground battle staff officer, joint operations planner, and Army strategist with service in over 20 foreign nations, including 5 operational deployments and 12 named operations. When he retired he was the Army's senior, most experienced Operations Research (OR) officer with assignments spanning land warfare analyses, manpower and personnel, program analysis and evaluation, and logistics. While assistant professor of OR at West Point he helped create a new Department of Systems Engineering where he subsequently served as one of the first associate professors.

For 12 years after retiring, he served on the research staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses where he advised several foreign governments on their defense reform initiatives and served as senior OR analyst for the multi-national forces command in Iraq. With advanced degrees in engineering, Operations Research, and international security, he is a distinguished graduate of the US Marine Corps Command and Staff College, Army War College graduate, National Defense Fellow at MIT, and holds a certificate in political philosophy from Oxford. Dr. Parlier is a past president of the Military Applications Society of INFORMS, vice president for the Military Operations Research Society, program chain for the annual series of International Conferences on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems, and recently served as advisor to the Under Secretary of the Army.

J. Sukarno Mertoguno, Ph.D 

Faculty of the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy and the director for Cyber Systems Analysis, Formulation and Automation labs (CSAFA). His research covers broad area of computing systems and cybersecurity. He previously served as Chief Innovation Officer for the Information and Cyber Science Directorate (ICSD) of Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and as Deputy Director for Institute for Information Security & Privacy (IISP), Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT).

He brought in innovative concepts and practical solutions. Before joining GTRI, he managed basic and applied science research in cyber security and complex software for The Office of Naval Research (ONR) where he developed several novel concepts, such as BFT++, Learn2Reason, CryptoFactory, NoiseFactory, and bottom-up formal methods, etc and initiated many innovative programs such as RHIMES and TPCP.

Prior to ONR, he was a system & chip architect and an entrepreneur in San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked on various chips and systems, such as embedded processors, switching fabric, network processors, and various other hardware accelerators, including TCP/IP, NFS, mobile anti-malware, etc. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from SUNY-Binghamton. He attended two different universities for two different degreessimultaneously, and graduated with a degree in electrical engineeringfrom Trisakti University and a degree in theoretical physics from The University of Indonesia.

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Lowrance

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Lowrance is a graduate student at the US Army War College (AWC). He received his commission as a Distinguished Military Graduate and Signal Officer from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in 2000. Prior to the War College, he was assigned at the Army Artificial Intelligence Integration Center (AI2C), where he served as the Chief Autonomous Systems Engineer leading modernization projects at the intersection of AI, autonomy, and robotics. Preceding the AI2C, he served as an Associate Professor and Deputy Program Director of Electrical Engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Throughout his career, LTC Lowrance has served in multiple leadership positions as a Signal Officer and Network Systems Engineer. LTC Lowrance holds a Doctorate degree from the University of Louisville in Computer Science and Engineering, a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University, and a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from VMI.

Dr. C. Anthony Pfaff

Dr. C. Anthony Pfaff is the Research Professor for the Military Profession and Ethic at the U.S. Army War Colleges Strategic Studies Institute. A retired Army colonel, Dr. Pfaff recently served as Director for Iraq on the National Security Council Staff. While on active duty, he served on the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department, as the Defense Attaché in Baghdad, the Chief of International Military Affairs for US Army Central Command, and as the Defense Attaché in Kuwait. He served twice in Operation iraqi freedom once as the Deputy J2 for a Joint Special Operations Task Force and as the Senior Military Advisor for the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team. He also served as the Senior Intelligence Officer on the Iraq Intelligence Task Force and as a UN observer along the Iraq-Kuwait border. Dr. Pfaff has a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Economics from Washington and Lee University, a master’s degree in Philosophy from Stanford University; a master’s in National Resource Management from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces; and a Doctorate in Philosophy from Georgetown University.

Gaining the Advantage for the Military in Artificial Intelligence through Education and Training

With the resurgence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a return to great-power competition, the United States (U.S.) military is looking to gain competitive advantage by integrating the technology into a series of warfighting applications. Of course, the U.S.’s strongest competitors – China and Russia – are aiming to do the same. The challenge for the United States is that its near-peer adversaries likely have access to similar state-of-the-art AI algorithms. Thus, the U.S. must look at ways of employing the technology better than its adversaries in battle. This competitive edge will only be achieved by the U.S. military through its people who are skilled in the deployment and maintenance of AI-enabled systems, and it will take a partnership with academia and industry to ensure the Department of Defense puts the right education and training pipelines in place to achieve this objective.

The education and training of the military’s service members in AI will be critical given the dependence of AI algorithms on learning from data examples and the fact that it takes skilled people to update AI-enabled systems to new data and changes after deployment. The battlefield is a dynamic environment where the types of threats, tactics, and operating conditions can change rapidly. Hence, a key to maintaining advantage will be how quickly the U.S. military can exploit the collection of new operational data to improve performance and quickly adapt their AI-enabled systems during deployment to changes that will inevitably occur. Failure to retrain AI systems after fielding will result in performance degradation and system errors as the operating environment and new inputs to the AI models drift from the examples in which they were originally trained. Therefore, the speed at which the U.S. military can retrain and update its AI platforms during current operations to adapt to such changes will be a key factor in gaining the competitive advantage and making sure its AI is the best on the battlefield. To achieve this objective, it will take skilled service members who are experts in executing the software update cycle of AI systems. That will involve service members continuously building, testing, and deploying new updates to their AI-enabled platforms to keep them performing as optimal as possible.

Unfortunately, the Department of Defense does not have enough in-house capability to either perform the necessary education, training, and certification of its service members to perform these critical tasks or, in some cases, operate certain AI-driven systems. Thus, the way forward, even if it is only an interim stage, is for DOD to partner with academia and industry. Unfortunately, there exist cultural and regulatory barriers to this partnership. This presentation will discuss the technological challenge to illustrate where partnering with industry and academia would be most productive and offer suggestions on overcoming barriers to that partnership.

Mr. Steven Weldon, Director Cyber Institute, School of Computers & Cyber Sciences, Augusta University

Steven G. Weldon is a native of Hahira, Georgia. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in January 1983 as a Cryptologic Technician Interpretive. After attending the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA, he completed tours in Spain and Turkey.  He then completed the Navy ROTC Program and graduated from the George Washington University in Washington, DC in June 1990.

Upon commissioning, Steve completed tours in Japan and Bahrain. He then attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA graduating in 1997 with a Master of Science degree in Computer Science with a concentration in Computer Security.

After Monterey, he completed tours in Fort Meade, Maryland, Alice Springs, Australia and Everett, Washington embarked on the USS abraham lincoln (CVN 72). From August 2003 to November 2004, he served as Executive Officer at Naval Security Group Activity Fort Gordon.

Steve served with the U.S. Army's XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, NC from 2004 – 2006 including a 1-year deployment to Iraq. He then served as the Commanding Officer of Navy Information Operations Command Colorado and on the Seventh Fleet Staff, embarked on the USS blue ridge (LCC 19) homeported in Japan. Steve returned to Augusta in April 2012 as the NSA Georgia Signals Intelligence Director. He retired from the Navy in May 2015.

Steve joined the faculty of Augusta University’s School of Computer and Cyber Sciences in January 2017. He serves as the Director of the Cyber Institute and as an Instructor. His responsibilities include community outreach in the Central Savannah River Area to K-12 institutions, professional organizations, and Department of Defense and Department of Energy entities. His teaching responsibilities include courses in computer programming and ethics in computer science. Steve also serves as the Faculty Sponsor for the Augusta University Student Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Nicholas Murray, D.Phil., FRHistS

Nicholas teaches and runs wargames for the SecDef's Strategic Thinkers Program at Johns Hopkins as well as being a part of the team which created the program. He has designed and run more than 100 wargames. In addition, he is an active scholar: his most recent books are translations, with commentary, of Clausewitz’s campaign histories covering the revolutionary campaigns in 1799-1800.

He has also authored numerous articles and essays on military history and PME. He has advised and assisted the Office of the Secretary Defense (OSD) with policy regarding military education and wargaming, and he has received numerous awards including the OSD's highest medal: the Exceptional Public Service Award.

Colonel Francis Park, U.S. Army

Colonel Park is the director of the Basic Strategic Art Program at the U.S. Army War College. After commissioning in 1994 from the ROTC program at Johns Hopkins, his first ten years on active duty were spent primarily in armored cavalry and light airborne cavalry assignments before becoming a strategic plans and policy officer. Since 2004, he has served in operational and institutional planning, strategy, and policy assignments ranging from the division level up to the Joint Staff.

He is the principal author of the 2014 Army Strategic Planning Guidance, the 2018 National Military Strategy, and Joint Doctrine Note 2-19, Strategy. His other experience includes assignments at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army Center of Military History, and the Joint History Office. Colonel Park holds a master’s degree from the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Kansas.

Robert Davis

Robert Davis is the Associate Dean of Academics at the Command and General Staff School.  He previously served as the Director of the Goodpaster Scholars (Advanced Strategic Planning and Policy Program) and taught at the School of Advanced Military Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Modern European History from Ohio University. Robert was a Fulbright Scholar in Oslo, Norway. His publications include The Challenge of Adaptation: The U.S. Army in the Aftermath of Conflict, 1953-2000 (2008), The Military and the Media (2009), U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security, 2 vols. (2010), “NATO, Western Europe, and the Eisenhower Administration,” in A Companion to Dwight D. Eisenhower (2017), and “Cold War Infamy: NATO exercise Carte Blanche,” in Military Exercises: Political Messaging and Strategic Impact (2018). 

Ken Gleiman, Ph.D.

U.S. Army (Retired)
President, Army Strategist Association
Author of Operational Art and the Clash of Cultures: Postmortem on Speical Operations as a Seventh Warfighting Function, (2012), ISBN 149330981, ISBN12: 9781479330980.

Ken is President of the Army Strategist Association, Vice President of Inspirata Consulting - a company that evaluates programs and strategy for the U.S. Government, and teaches at Georgetown University. Ken is a retired Army Colonel who served as a Special Forces officer and Army Strategist for 27 years.

He received his Ph.D. from Kansas State University through the Army’s Goodpaster Scholars Program and is also a graduate of the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), Georgetown University's School of Public Policy, and the Army’s Art of War program. He has served in multiple combat zones and at the Pentagon and Combatant Command Level assignments.

Abstract: The Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report #R46458, Emerging Military Technologies: Background and Issues for Congress, updated and published on November 10, 2021, presented group research opportunities for the United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) cadets currently enrolled in a spring course, Information Technology in Organizations. This report comparatively addresses the development efforts among the United States, China and Russia, including related congressional focal needs and issues, for six (6) selected emerging military technologies: artificial intelligence, biotechnology, directed energy weapons, hypersonic weapons, lethal autonomous weapons, and quantum technology. It is essential to engage cadets in learning about emerging military technologies, especially when considering United States Coast Guard (USCG) missions. Six groups of cadets are individually assigned to each of the emerging military technologies. Group research will establish emerging military technologies’ use or considerations in support of one or more of 5 of the 11 USCG missions codified in the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

• Ports, Waterways & Coastal Security
• Drug Interdiction
• Migrant Interdiction
• Defense Readiness (National Security & Military Preparedness)
• Law Enforcement (including Prohibition Enforcement History)

The panel will share an overview of the groups’ research.

Moderator

Angela G. Jackson

Angela G. Jackson-Summers is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems in the Management Department at the U. S. Coast Guard Academy. She received her Ph.D. in Business Administration (Information Systems) from Kennesaw State University. Her research interests include IT/IS risk management, and data/information security and assurance.

Cadet Panelists

1/c Abby Nitz

1/c Abby Nitz, a Management major from Sterling, Illinois, currently serves as the President of the Glee Club and Fairwinds singing ensembles, Lead in the Cadet Musical, and the Writer for the Need-to-Know Newsletter.  1/c Nitz previously served as the Fall Semester Logistics Department Head.

1/c Erin Wood

1/c Erin Wood, a Management major from Douglasville, Georgia, has been recognized as a member of the Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society, and serves as a member and Captain of the Women’s Rowing Team, and the Secretary of the Equestrian Club.  1/c Wood is also a member of the Sustainability Club, Cadets Against Sexual Assault, Aviation Club, Adventure Sports Club, and the Women’s Leadership Council.

2/c Chase Jin

2/c Chase Jin, a Cyber Systems major from Fullerton, California, has been recognized on the Dean’s list, and as an All-American Pistol athlete.  2/c Jin currently serves as a member of the USCGA Cyber Team and Asian Pacific American Club.

2/c Michael Dankworth

2/c Michael Dankworth, a Cyber Systems major from Scottsdale, Arizona, has been inducted into the Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society, and recognized on the Dean’s List and Commandant of Cadet’s List.  2/c Dankworth serves as Community Service/Institutional Service Master at Arms for Spring Semester 2022.  He previously served as the Waterfront Phase 1 Safety Officer for Swab Summer 2021.

2/c Branyelle Carillo

2/c Branyelle Carillo is a Cyber Systems major from Harford County, Maryland.

1/c Nick Epstein

1/c Nick Epstein is a Cyber Systems major from Columbia, Maryland.

Anthony Eames

Anthony Eames is the Director of Scholarly Initiatives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, where he oversees the development of academic alliances and is responsible for fellowships and programs to support scholarship on the Reagan presidency, legacy, and era. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Georgetown University and an M.A. jointly conferred from King’s College London and Georgetown University. He has spoken and published widely on nuclear and national security issues, including for The Journal of Military History, Technology & Culture, and War on the Rocks. His forthcoming book, A Voice in Their Own Destiny, addresses the Reagan administration’s revolution of U.S. public diplomacy. In addition to his work at the Institute, Anthony teaches for George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

Dr. Eames will speak on national security and the historian’s ethos:

In a recent essay for National Review, General H.R. McMaster issued a call to all Americans to preserve the warrior ethos. The warrior ethos, as McMaster understands it, has been a historical constant since the days of Achilles. American’s social, political, and moral values, however, are more dynamic than ever before. The dissonance between these two phenomena erodes the will of American soldiers to fight and win wars, and exacerbates the physical and psychological trauma of war. McMaster identifies the study of history as the anecdote, specifically military and diplomatic history that stresses individual agency in the tradition of the great man theory of history.

However, General McMaster’s recommendations for preserving the warriors ethos are untenable because he fails to understand the historian’s ethos. McMaster would do well to recall the work of one of his favorite historians, Marc Bloch. Bloch wrote his masterpiece, The Historian’s Craft, while serving in the French resistance in the Second World War. In his work, Bloch made the case to “preserve the broadest interpretation of history.” The form of history that Bloch advocated for—the Annales school--stressed perspectives from ordinary people. This understanding of history underwrote Bloch’s profound sense of duty to fight for France in both World War I and World War II.

Bloch’s belief in studying the perspectives of those dispossessed of power and writing history based on the widest variety of evidence laid the foreground for the New Left’s writing of history from the bottom up and the socio-cultural-environmental turn among professional historians that McMaster holds responsible for sewing the divisions in American society that undermines soldiers of the will to fight. But one must ask if these now paradigmatic features of the historian’s ethos are really an anathema to national security. Should historians distort their craft to preserve the warrior’s ethos? This paper argues that the U.S. military and defense community should embrace the historian’s ethos to better craft national security priorities reflective of the whole of American society.

Historians, however, are equally responsible for problems befalling civil-military relations. In their rush to criticize American power, academic historians stopped speaking truth to power, preferring instead to withdraw from the public sphere deeper and deeper into the fetishes of their field. The misdrawn conception that dialogue with American military and national security community amounts to complicity in military interventions has amounted to what Frank Gavin and Hal Brands termed the “slow-motion suicide” of the historical profession. This paper further delineates the ways in which the historians can develop mutually advantageous partnerships with the national security community that benefit American society and revive their profession.

Lieutenant Colonel Ioseb Japaridze

Lieutenant Colonel Ioseb Japaridze is Head of Postgraduate Degree Programs at David Aghmashenebeli National Defence Academy (NDA) of Georgia. Prior to his current assignment during his military career he served 1n the following key positions: Head of Management Faculty at NDA; Senior Instructor of the leadership and management department national Command and Staff College; Head of Personnel Readiness Status Analysis Section in J1 Personnel Department, General Staff; Head of Personnel Management Systems Development Section, J1 Personnel Department, General Staff.

Key Educational Achievements

2022 - Doctor of Social Science - Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, The Faculty of Social and Political Science, Conflict Management and Analysis Ph.D. Program

2006 – Master of Law, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (Meskheti Branch), the Faculty of Law, Meskheti Branch, Georgia

2019 – Master of Military Art and Science, Strategic Studies Program, Fort Leavenworth, the US Army Command and General Staff College.

Abstract: Over the past three decades, significant geopolitical processes developed around the world and in the Caucasus region, which has radically transformed Georgia's current national security environment. Particularly painful for Georgia was the large-scale armed aggression by the Russian Federation against the country in 2008, which resulted in the occupation of more than twenty percent of Georgian territories. Russia's hybrid war strategy against Georgia, which combines the growing militarization of Russian forces, support for separatist regimes, support to the frozen conflicts, creeping occupation of territories, cyber-attacks, use of aggressive diplomatic, economic, and information instruments of national power significantly deteriorated national security environment of Georgia.

Full integration to North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a priority national interest of the country because Georgia is forced to pursue a policy of balance of power against the Russian Federation to balance the future major threats to its sovereignty and statehood. On the other hand, Russia sees NATO’s expansion to the east as a sharp step towards its national security and seeks to veto the North Atlantic Alliance's future decision and free choice of sovereign states by establishing red lines along its borders. By intensively using elements of a hybrid war against Armenia-Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, Russia seeks to maintain and strengthen its national security interests and does not avoid taking political steps that threaten not only the security architecture of Ukraine and Europe but of the world as a whole.

It is impossible to ensure the country's economic development and peaceful environment without strong state institutions responsible for security, especially in the complex and complicated environment full of challenges in which Georgia is currently. The current geopolitical processes not only in Georgia but also in the world require constant study, research, and analysis, and in this situation, a special role is played by the country's higher education system, which should provide qualified personnel to state institutions responsible for national security.

At the present stage, the most important and high-level higher education product related to national security in Georgia is offered to the public by the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. In particular, the Davit Agmashenebeli Georgian National Defense Academy, which with its new master's programs, the establishment of a strong research center, and a modern teaching strategy, is the undisputed leader in the educational space of Georgia. The Georgian National Defense Academy established new unique master programs in Defense Analysis, Security Studies and National Resource Management to prepare strategic planning specialists, strategic thinkers, defense and security specialists, and researchers not only for the Ministry of Defence but also for state institutions responsible for providing the country's security sector and national security with state resources.

The purpose of this article is to introduce the participants of the symposium the need to prepare strategic leaders for the state security sector as an important mission of the country's high education system; and highlight new postgraduate degree programs developed by the National Defense Academy, their importance, goals, and objectives, aimed to play a significant role in strengthening the national security of the country.

Natali Gvalia

Natali was born on December 19, 2002, in Senaki, Georgia. Her parents are Nino and Dato Gvalia, and I have three siblings, Petre, David, and Helen. In 2008, she attended Gr. Kobakhidze public school in Tbilisi and received an academic achievement award – Golden medal. She has volunteered at workshops, marathons, and wrestling tournaments. After 12^th grade she passed national exams, and enrolled in the National Defence Academy in Gori where she successfully completed the basic combat training course and became a 1^st course Junker performing well both physically and academically. She is now in her second year of studies and hopes to work as an officer in the near future.

Abstract:

The USA is an enormous and diverse country, however, it’s not tapping into the capability of all its human capital via making sure educational possibility for all young humans with aptitudes for the sciences or language skills needed for national security. There is a great number of proficient children with untold capability languishing in substandard schools in poor communities. That is why their military branches have issues enlisting sufficient academically certified recruits.

USA's national security is depend on the ability to properly train and retain the next generation of Americans to safeguard their national security. They need a better system of ensuring universal access to quality public education that doesn’t require great family wealth or financially crippling college loan debt. Congress, the President, and policymakers must do more than recognize the changing nature of national security threats. They must meet these threats by ensuring a high-quality education system that is affordable and accessible to all Americans.

Higher education increases the potential for people to perform as citizens. Some would say that the most destructive force in America today is public opinion. Without higher education, the situation would be vastly worse. Nurturing critical thinking is a key component of any college or university education.  At this point, creating an educated citizenry may be the weakest link in the contribution of American higher education to national security, but they need to educate individuals about the world and teach them to think critically about important issues which are affecting our future.

Retired Adm. William McRaven, a former US Navy SEAL commander and head of US Special Operations Command, said he was "the biggest fan" of the younger generation of Americans and that education in grade school played a broader role in national security. “It was because I recognized that unless we are giving opportunity and quality education to the young men and women in the United States, then we won't have the right people to be able to make the right decisions about our national security," McRaven said. "They won't have an understanding of different cultures. They won't have an understanding of different ideas. They won't be critical thinkers."

Americans will never forget the coordinated terrorist attacks on the country's financial center in New York, its global military headquarters at the Pentagon, and its civilian air transportation system on September 11, 2001. The 20 years of military operations and other efforts in response to the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist threats, including the Islamic State group, diverted time, resources, and attention away from other efforts needed to protect and strengthen the US. New transnational challenges emerging in the international system, such as pandemics and cybersecurity, and state competitors such as China and Russia took more assertive stances in the global arena. The global landscape shifted as America focused on the fight against terrorist networks. However, these more positive outcomes came at a high strategic, material, and human cost, including the emergence of a number of conflicts and foreign policy crises that will not be resolved anytime soon. Large, undereducated portions of the population damage the ability of the United States to physically defend itself, protect its secure information, conduct diplomacy, and grow its economy.  In conclusion, human capital will determine power in the current century, and the failure to produce that capital will undermine America's security.

Imani Cabell

Imani is the Assistant Director of Dual Enrollment at UNG and a doctoral student in the UNG Higher Education Leadership and Practice EdD program. Imani’s passion centers on eliminating student barriers to a college education and promoting impactful student programs. Her experience working with a variety of students from different high schools and walks of life has enhanced my understanding of program specifications and potential barriers that may impact student success. As a doctoral student, Imani’s knowledge and support for student achievement have been enhanced through research on specialized student populations and alternative college admission opportunities. Through her years of working in higher education, Imani is still excited by the opportunity to help students dream, value their education, and progress towards a successful future. 

Katherine Adams, PH.D. 

Katherine is an Assistant Professor and the program coordinator for the Higher Education Leadership & Practice doctoral program at the University of North Georgia. Katherine teaches coursework on higher education leadership theory, qualitative research, student affairs administration, and law and ethics in higher education. Katherine's research interests are in the areas of boundary spanning, community engagement, higher education trends, university-community partnerships, collegiate leadership, and research communication. Katherine received her Ph.D. in Adult Education, where her focus was on the roles, characteristics, and motivations of community leaders/boundary spanners within university-community partnerships. She also obtained a M.Ed. in Human Resources/Occupational Development, a Masters Certificate in Interdisciplinary Qualitative Research, and a B.S. in Psychology all from The University of Georgia. Katherine is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship.

Abstract:

Enrollments at U.S. colleges and universities have fallen for ten consecutive years and the impacts of COVID-19 have only exacerbated the issue of recruiting and retaining students. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, continued enrollment losses in the pandemic represent “a total two-year decline of 5.1 percent or 938,000 students” (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2022). As Generation Z has begun to reveal a hesitancy over the “costs” of higher education (Loveland, 2017), may yield a significant decline over the coming decades, leading to even tighter competition for students. The forecasting of the enrollment cliff of higher education can quickly turn into a significant state of fiscal crisis, as seen within the consolidations and mergers of the past decade (Martin & Samels, 2017). To combat the prediction of tighter resources, declined enrollment, and changes generational perspectives, once again now is the time to seek recruitment efforts towards new or untapped applicant populations.

Consistently since 2016, dual enrollment has experienced rapid growth in providing high school students with collegiate access and dual high school and college course credits, contrasting the current declining enrollment of traditional-aged students (Pretlow et al., 2021). Dual enrollment is defined broadly as a high school student’s participation in college-level courses for the purpose of earning college credits while still enrolled in high school (Waits et al., 2005). Since inception in the United States in 1955, dual enrollment has gained recognition as a promising approach to enhance educational opportunities, increase the affordability of college, and bridge the transition between high school and college (Karp et al. 2007). Through utilizing the growth of one accelerating population, this presentation will seek to reassess the role of dual enrollment and participation in alignment with the Corps of Cadets.

This presentation will address barriers to participation of dual enrolled students in the Corps of Cadets with the purpose of combatting those issues and creating innovative solutions to increase participation. We will briefly discuss the recent (2017+) history of dual enrollment and cadets within one case institution. From these experiences, suggestions for senior military colleges to utilize unique recruitment efforts, application supports, and advising practices will be presented. This presentation will commence with practical solutions to create greater opportunities for student participation through marketing the attractiveness of both programs to this unique population.