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International Security

  • Published
  • Air Command and Staff College, Air University, Maxwell AFB, AL

Department of International Security (IS)

The Department of International Security is made up of civilian and military faculty from across the joint force and includes officers from our nation’s allies. Faculty within the department are responsible for teaching, research, and service. The department develops and delivers two of the core courses: International Security 1 and International Security 2. The first course, IS 1, provides a comprehensive overview of the context in which the development of US grand strategy occurs. The second course, IS 2, explores the conduct of national security through the lens of military strategy.

 

Dr. Kevin C. Holzimmer is Department Chairman of the Department of International Security and Professor of Comparative Military Studies at Air University’s Air Command and Staff College (ACSC).  Before his current position at ACSC, he was a research professor at the USAF Air Force Research Institute and taught at the School for Advanced Air and Space Studies.  Dr. Holzimmer has published numerous studies on World War II in the Pacific, including General Walter Krueger: Unsung Hero of the Pacific War (University Press of Kansas).  He is currently working on a book-length project that examines how the principal air, land, and sea commanders forged an effective joint team that successfully fought the Japanese in Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Area.  In addition to his academic pursuits, Dr. Holzimmer has worked on recent policy concerns, first with GEN David H. Petraeus’ USCENTCOM Joint Strategic Assessment Team (9 October 2008- February 2009) and most recently conducting fieldwork in charting a U.S. Air Force strategy based upon President Obama’s famous “pivot to Asia” speech.  He holds a PhD in military history from Temple University.
Dr. Matthew R. Schwonek is an instructor in the Department of International Security, Air Command and Staff College (ACSC). He is Associate Professor of Comparative Military Studies. His responsibilities include teaching ACSC core courses in military theory, international relations, and security studies.  He also teaches elective course on politics and security in Central Europe.  He received a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in East Central European and Russian History from the Ohio State University in 1994. Before coming to ACSC in 1996, he served as assistant director of Ohio State’s Center for Slavic and East European Studies.  His research interests include European military and diplomatic history, the history of Poland, Russia/Soviet Union, and Balkans.  He has published articles and book chapters on the history of Polish arms. He is currently completing a political and military biography of Gen. Kazimierz Sosnkowski, spanning a career from terrorist to Commander in Chief.
Dr. Kathryn Boehlefeld is an Assistant Professor of Military and Security Studies at Air University's Air Command and Staff College, and a faculty member for the School of Advanced Nuclear Deterrence Studies (SANDS). She earned her PhD in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame and her B.A. from Northern Illinois University. She is also a graduate of the Joint and Combined Warfighting School. Dr. Boehlefeld teaches courses on nuclear deterrence theory and practice, international security, and comparative civil-military relations. Her research centers on international security, with a particular focus on national security policy, civil-military relations, and nuclear deterrence. Currently, she is working on projects related to conventional-nuclear integration, military professionalism, and a comparative study of the efficacy of the Iranian and North Korea nuclear sanctions.
Dr. Melvin G. Deaile is the Director of the School of Advanced Nuclear and Deterrence Studies (SANDS) and an Associate Professor in the Department of International Studies at Air University’s Air Command and Staff College. He teaches classes on nuclear deterrence, nuclear strategy, joint warfighting, and classical military thought. Dr Deaile hails from Fresno, CA native, and is a retired Air Force Colonel, where he served two tours in the B-52 Stratofortress and a tour in the B-2 Spirit. He has flown combat operations as part of Operations DESERT STORM and OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM, including a record setting 44.3 hour combat mission, and deployed in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and a distinguished graduate of the USAF Weapon School.       Dr. Deaile recently published his first book, Always at War, which chronicles the development of SAC’s organizational culture under Gen Curtis LeMay. He is the author of multiple articles, editorials, and book reviews on nuclear weapons and their role in national security.
Dr. Robert DiPrizio is an Associate Professor of Security and Military Studies at Air Command and Staff College. He is an expert on numerous security issues such as humanitarian interventions and the Arab-Israeli conflict.  He is the author of “Armed Humanitarians: US Interventions from Northern Iraq to Kosovo,” published by Johns Hopkins University Press, and is editor of “Conflict in the Holy Land: From Ancient Times to the Arab-Israeli Conflicts” published by ABC-CLIO. Dr. DiPrizio grew up in the Boston area and earned his PhD in International Relations in 2000 from the University of Delaware.  He now lives in Prattville with his two children and a massive dog named Buddy.
Dr. Michael Ryan Kraig is Associate Professor of International Security Studies at Air Command and Staff College.  He earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University at Buffalo, New York, with a major in international security studies and a minor in comparative politics.  Dr. Kraig served in several senior capacities with the Stanley Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan foundation devoted to researching and advocating security policy options for the US and its competitors that would moderate the extremes of their geopolitical disagreements. He was a frequent traveler to Europe, the Middle East and Asia to give scholarly presentations on US policy thinking and strategy, alongside management and implementation of broad-based “track-2,” informal diplomatic dialogues among a wide range of senior national and global political leaders, think-tank analysts, and academics from global capitals such as Tehran, Riyadh, Damascus, Cairo, Dubai, Muscat (Oman), Berlin, London, Moscow, and Beijing. Prior to joining the foundation, Dr. Kraig interned with what is now known as the Government Accountability Office on nuclear weapons issues in the post-Cold War era and presented findings on South Asian nuclear arsenals at the UN 2000 NPT Review Conference.
Dr. Todd C. Robinson is an Associate Professor of Military and Security Studies with the School for Advanced Nuclear Deterrence Studies (SANDS) at the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell, AFB.  He was previously an Assistant Professor of Nuclear Enterprise Operations with the Center for Strategic Deterrence Studies at the Air War College.  Prior to this, he was a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the RAND Corporation and the Associate Director of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  His research focuses on nuclear weapons issues, including strategic deterrence and assurance, military roles and responsibilities, and East Asia, and has been published in the Non-Proliferation Review, Swords and Ploughshares, the Yale Journal of International Affairs, and the National Interest.  He is currently working on a book manuscript on comparative nuclear culture.  His teaching responsibilities include being the instructor of Deterrence Theory and Practice I within the SANDS curriculum, as well as sections of War Theory and International Security II for ACSC and a joint AWC/ACSC elective on Comparative Nuclear Strategy.  He has a B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Alabama, an M.A. in Security Policy Studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.