Academics

Teacher and Learner

I have long held that the day you stop learning new things is the day they should be shoveling dirt over you.

As a way of giving back to my country and community, I continue to teach and mentor in a variety of settings.

A "free-range professor" A “free-range professor”

About Me:

I spent 32 years in the US Air Force, where I served as a pilot, flight instructor, tactician, analyst, safety officer, strategic planner, diplomat and college professor.

I hold a Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma (main fields: International Relations, Public Policy, Public Administration), an MS in National Security Strategy from the National War College, an MS in Operations Research from the AF Institute of Technology, and a BS in History from the US Air Force Academy.

My doctoral dissertation has been published as a book, “Predicting War, Predicting Peace” by Lambert Academic Press.

Air Force Logo

What I Teach

I teach across the entire US Air Force’s Air University online program, including:

  • Problem Solving in National Security (Air War College Capstone)
  • Applied Airpower and Security Studies (Air War College)
  • Airpower Studies (Online Masters Program)
  • National Security Strategy (Online Masters Program)
  • Research Elective on Deterrence (Online Masters Program)
  • Applied National Security (Air Command & Staff College)
  • Weapons of Mass Persuasion (Squadron Officers College)

 

Takeoff!

What I’m Learning

On the academic side, I have been taking courses in “Artificial Intelligence” and Big Data Methods

  • Machine Learning (Classification, Regression, Neural Nets, Ensemble Learning)
  • Social Network Analysis
  • Bayesian Nets
  • Python

I have also “gotten in touch” with my creative side

  • Photography
  • 3D Printing
  • High-Power Rocketry

Previous Teaching

In the past, (and besides teaching new pilots how to fly) I have taught both graduate and undergraduate courses on a variety of subjects, including:

Graduate

  • Masters Thesis Supervision
  • Advanced Statistical Methods
  • Research Methods
  • Air Warfare in the 21st Century
  • US National Security
  • Joint Warfare Planning and Implementation
  • Case Studies in Joint Warfare
  • Seminar in Asymmetric Warfare
  • Insurgency and Revolution
  • The Non-State Soldier
  • Covert Action

Undergraduate

  • American Federal Government
  • International Relations
  • Statistical Methods
  • Public Administration
  • US Constitution
  • American History After 1865
  • Homeland Security
  • International Relations Theory

Useful Links

Harvard Think Tank Search

Purdue Online Writing Library

Air War College Gateway to the Internet

The IR Theory Knowledge Base

Congressional Research Service Reports

Presidential Directives and Executive Orders

JCS Joint Electronic Library

CIA Library (Unclassified)

CIA FOIA Reading Room

US State Department – Foreign Relations of the United States

US State Department – Treaties and International Agreements