Penn State Political Science professor will explore government policy challenges in terrorism
Date & Time: February 04, 2015 | 09:00 PM – 10:15 PM
Location: Lewis Katz Building 116
James Piazza, associate professor in Penn State's Department of Political Science will talk about challenges in terrorism government policy as part of the Penn State School of International Affairs’ spring colloquium: Current Policy Challenges. Piazza's reasearch focuses on terrorism and political violence.
School of International Affairs professor and U.S. Ambassador (Ret.) Dennis Jett, organizes the semester long event to bring thought leaders on topics ranging from food security to terrorism. The program features 14 speakers. Colloquium topics vary depending upon the current issues of the day. The course surveys some major transnational social problems confronting the world, suggested by the Copenhagen Consensus, such as: climate change; communicable diseases; conflict and arms proliferation; access to education; financial instability; governance and corruption; malnutrition and hunger; migration; sanitation and access to clean water; and subsidies and trade barriers. The course involves team teaching and guest lecturers. The course lectures are open to the public and made available via webcast.
Piazza, also the director of the Department of Political Science Graduate Program, focuses his research and teaching on international politics, international security, yerrorism and political violence. His published research has examined several themes including the socioeconomic roots of terrorism, minority rights and terrorism and the impact of political regime type, political stability, religion, human rights, and state repression on terrorist movements and terrorist activity. In his more recent work, he has investigated the impact of the transnational narcotics trade and counternarcotics strategies on terrorist activity. He has also embarked on a new research agenda examining U.S. public opinion about the use of extraordinary interrogation and detention of terror suspects and is a co-investigator with colleagues on a multi-year grant project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative investigating the role of natural resource wealth on armed intrastate conflict actors globally.
His published research has appeared in a variety of journals including American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the Journal of Peace Research,Political Psychology, Public Choice, Political Research Quarterly, Terrorism and Political Violence, Foreign Policy Analysis and the Southern Economic Journal.