Two Perspectives on Making Homeland Security at the Local Level

September 23, 2005 - 12 p.m., Room 225B Eggers

At this brown bag lunch discussion Kerry Fosher, who recently graduated from Maxwell with a Ph.D. in anthropology, will speak about developing and implementing security plans at the local level, the topic of her dissertation, and about her work as a DHS Master Exercise Practitioner.  She will also talk about how she conducted research for her dissertation. Matt Hidek, current Maxwell geography Ph.D. and public

administration student and former DHS analyst, will speak about his ideas on developing a new approach to pre-incident planning and disaster mitigation and the process of developing a dissertation topic.

Speakers' bios and background reading

An American Double Standard on Nuclear Weapons

September 30, 2005 - 2 p.m., Room 204 College of Law

A talk by Hugh Gusterson, MIT Associate Professor of Anthropology and Science and

Technology Studies.  Professor Gusterson's research focuses on the political culture of

nuclear weapons scientists and anti-nuclear activists.  He is the author of People of the

Bomb:  Portraits of America's Nuclear Complex (2004), Nuclear Rites: A Weapons

Laboratory at the End of the Cold War (1996), and co-editor of Cultures of Insecurity: States, Communities and the Production of Danger (1999).

Speaker's bio and background reading

Prosecuting War Crimes and Terrorism  

October 14, 2005 - 1:30 p.m., Room 200 College of Law

A panel discussion with David Crane, William Snyder, and William Banks* on the rule of law as a counterterrorism tool looking at the use of military commissions, international tribunals, and civilian Article III courts to prosecute war criminals and terrorists.  Their commentaries will be:
    -    Prosecutions After Tearing Down the Wall: When are Article III courts the right
         tool for the counter-terrorism job now that intelligence officers and law

         enforcement agents conduct joint investigations? - William Snyder

    -    Battlefield Justice: Trying War Criminals and Terrorists by Military Tribunals -

         William Banks
    -    The Dark Corners: Fighting Terrorists With the Rule of Law, The West African   

         Experience - David Crane

* William Banks is replacing Col. Denise Vowell, Chief Trial Judge of the U.S. Army,  who intended to be one of the panelists, but had to attend to her judicial duties.  

Speakers' bios and background reading

Video of panel discussion

U.S. Strategy for the "War on Terror," a Critical Time

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - 12:15 - 2 p.m., Room 220 Eggers Hall (Public Events Room)

Fighting Crime, Russian Style:  The Russian Criminal Justice System

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 - 12:15 - 2:00 p.m., Room 204 Maxwell Hall

Thomas Firestone is Assistant Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Since    1999, he has been assigned to the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section. He has participated in the prosecution of several major Russian organized crime and extradition cases. From 2002 to 2004, Mr. Firestone served as the Department of Justice Resident Legal Advisor and Deputy Chief of the Law Enforcement Section at U.S. Embassy, Moscow, where he participated in the State Duma Working Group that drafted Russia's first anti-trafficking legislation.

Lunch, lecture and discussion space is limited, please sign the list in the Moynihan

Institute lobby or contact Sallie Guyder at slguyder@maxwell.syr.edu.

The Russian Mafia:  Myth and Reality

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 - 4:30 p.m., Maxwell Auditorium

These lectures by Thomas Firestone, Senior Trial Counsel and Assistant United

States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York are being co-sponsored by the

Moynihan Institute's Global Policy Lecture and Luncheon Series, the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, and the Student Association on Terrorism and Security Analysis.

Speaker's bio and background reading

International Criminal Court: Scorn, Join or Selectively Use?

November 01, 2005 – 12:15 p.m., 204 Maxwell Hall

From 2001 - 2005, Nicholas Rostow served as the General Counsel and Senior Policy

Nations. There, he represented the U.S. on the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee. He also participated in the negotiation of resolutions regarding the Middle

East, including Iraq, terrorism, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. He is currently University Fellow, The Levin Institute of International Relations & Commerce,

State University of New York.

Mr. Rowstow will discuss the International Criminal Court.

Speaker's biography and background reading.

The Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and Student Association on Terrorism and  Security Analysis are also sponsoring this event.
 

The UN and Counter-Terrorism:  Active Participant or Interested Bystander?

November 01, 2005 – 4 p.m., Maxwell Auditorium
 

Mr. Nicholas Rostow will discuss the United Nation’s role in Counterterrorism.
 

Speaker's biography and background reading.

The Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and Student Association on Terrorism and 

Security Analysis are also sponsoring this event.
 

Blood from Stones - Terrorist Financing in West Africa

Wednesday, November 9, 2005 - 12 p.m., Room 200 College of Law

A talk by Douglas Farah, author of Blood From Stones:  The Secret Financial Network of Terror (2004).  Mr. Farah was a member of the investigative staff and a foreign  correspondent for the Washington Post for 20 years and served as the West Africa bureau chief.  He also worked as a consultant and senior fellow at the National Strategy Information Center regarding national intelligence matters.  Mr. Farah now works as a consultant and writer on terrorism, armed groups and national intelligence matters.

Speaker's bio and background reading

Espionage, Terrorism, and Intelligence Reform Friday, November 11, 2005 - 1:30 p.m., Maxwell 204   Michael Sulick will discuss espionage and counterterrorism.    Mr. Sulick has over 25 years of experience in intelligence operations.  He has held a number of positions in the CIA ranging from clandestine service operations officer, to Senior CIA Field Representative in Russia and Poland, to Director of the Liaison Group in the Office of Congressional Affairs, to Chief of the CIA's Central Eurasia Division, to Deputy Chief and Chief of Counterintelligence.

Most recently Mr. Sulick served as Associate Deputy Director for Operations of the CIA's Directorate of Operations in which position he conduced strategic planning and managing the operational direction of global covert intelligence operations on terrorism, weapons proliferation, counterintelligence, and regional and country-specific issues.   This talk is sponsored by the Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business and Government Policy, currently held by Montgomery C. Meigs.   Mr. Sulick's Biography

A Law Enforcement Approach to Terrorist Financing

Tuesday, November 15 - 2:30 p.m., Room 104

                   Gregory West

               Jeffery Breinholt

The 9/11 Commission recommended that U.S. counter-terrorism efforts focus on tracking and preventing terrorist financing, not only to decrease their capability directly but also to learn about their networks and operations in order to disrupt them. The U.S. employs a number of anti-terrorist financing strategies ranging from freezing the assets of designated foreign terrorist organizations to prosecuting those who provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations.

Deputy Chief of the Department of Justice's Counterterrorism Section, Jeffery Breinholt, and Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, Gregory West, will discuss these strategies generally and the challenges of investigating and prosecuting those involved in financing terrorists.

Gregory West serves as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York.

Humanitarian Action and Peacekeeping

Tuesday, November 29, 2005  - 7 p.m., Public Events Room (220 Eggers)

Professors W. Banks and C. Bertini                 Professors D. Crane and R. Rubinstein

" 'In the modern history of humanitarian action dating from civilian relief during the Second World War, never before has the legitimacy of the enterprise been so profoundly and publicly challenged, while at the same time never have the services of humanitarian organizations been more in demand.' "

                - DeMars (2000:1) quoted by Thomas G. Weiss in Researching      

                        Humanitarian Intervention:  Some Lessons, Journal of Peace Research, 2001.

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States and the international community have engaged in a number of humanitarian and peacekeeping operations.  As Professor Banks and his co-authors note in the National Security Law textbook, “by the end of 1993, some 72,000 persons – many of them military personnel – were active in 18 United Nations peacekeeping missions” including operations in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Macedonia. (Dycus, Berney, Banks, & Raven-Hansen at 393)  Prior to September 11^th and the global war on terrorism, “the incidence of armed conflict ha[d]] . . . decreased, but . . . at any point in the 1990s, more than 100 million people" were impacted by civil wars and natural disasters with an average of 35 million people displaced from their homes.” (Weiss at 420) The international community - including humanitarian aid organizations, national and international armed forces, and international organizations like the United Nations -  have responded to such crises by providing disaster assistance, engaging in peacekeeping operations, and conducting peacemaking or combat operations.  Such operations raise a range of issues including:  when and how should the international community provide disaster assistance or  intervene in internal conflicts? who should be involved? what type of humanitarian assistance should the military or armed services provide? should such entities provide humanitarian assistance at all? whose responsibility is it to maintain public security? how should those involved coordinate especially when they have different missions, cultures, and ways of operating – and when they may be competing for scare resources?  The following panelists addressed these and related issues, discussed future challenges, and made recommendations for successful humanitarian and peacekeeping operations.

• William Banks, Director of INSCT and Professor of Law and Public Administration.  Professor Banks is teaching National Security Law this fall.  Professor Banks took the place Montgomery Meigs, General USA Ret., Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy at the Maxwell School and former Commander of NATO's peacekeeping force in Bosnia. 

• Catherine Bertini, Maxwell School Professor of Practice in Public Administration and former under-secretary-general for management at the United Nations and former head of the UN World Food Program.  Professor Bertini is teaching Humanitarian Action this fall.

• Robert Rubinstein, Maxwell School Professor of Anthropology and International Relations and former Director of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflict (PARC) whose work focuses on cross-cultural aspects of conflict and dispute resolution.  Professor Rubinstein teaches Multilateral Peacekeeping

• David Crane, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law and former Chief Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone and legal counsel to the multinational force and observers of the peacekeeping operation in the Sinai.  Professor Crane is teaching National Security Law this fall.

Grant Search Workshop

Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - 12:00pm – 1:30pm, College of Law, Room 204

Are you in search of funding for research in national or international security or counterterrorism? Do you have questions about searching for grants?

Janet Anthony, Grant Specialist from the Office of Sponsored Programs at Syracuse University, will discuss the many funding opportunities (scholarships, fellowships, grants, etc.) that exist from both government and private interest entities for graduate students researching such topics as:

·          Control and reduction of weapons of mass destruction

·          Deterrence, non-proliferation, and arms control

·          Security implications of emerging technology

·          The future role of military forces

·          Critical Infrastructure Protection

·          Domestic Counterterrorism

·          Border and Transportation Security

·          Emergency preparedness and response

Paul R. Letersky, President & CEO of Secure Entry Systems, Inc. shares his views on careers in the security field both in the private and public sector from his own experience.

Paul R. Letersky has worked:

• for the FBI as a special agent tasked with preventing aircraft hijackings and as personal secretary to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover

• as Head of United Airlines' Security Department and Vice-President and Corporate Officer of Pan American World Airways

• as Vice President of Security Services for Astrophysics Research Corp. which develops non-intrusive security inspection products and as President and CEO of Secure Entry Systems, Inc. which develops software for the security and health care industries

Among other accomplishments, Mr. Letersky:

• Coordinated Delta Force assault training relative to Boeing 747 aircraft

• Authored the Security Standards for the International Courier Conference

• Set up the security plan which successfully ended the Cuban refugee hijacking

• Represented the airline industry in coordinating the international investigation of the 15 May Organization (aircraft and ground bombings), and other terror groups, and

• Coordinated international anti-terrorist security operations with a number of  foreign law enforcement/quasi-military groups and government airport authorities around the world.

Defeating Cyber Crime and Cyberterrorism Tuesday, February 7th, 11:40 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., Room 204, College of Law   A talk by Scott Charney, Microsoft Vice President of Trustworthy Computing and Chief Security Strategist Co-sponsored by the College of Law, Office of the Dean and INSCT

Scott Charney (SUCOL '80) has a wealth of experience in computer security in the private and public sectors. He served as chief of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in the 1990's. As lead federal prosecutor for computer crimes, he helped to prosecute major hacker cases and to develop the federal guidelines for searching and seizing computers, the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, federal computer crime sentencing guidelines, and the Criminal Divisions' policy on appropriate computer use and workplace monitoring. Following his work for the DOJ, Mr. Charney was a principal for Pricewaterhouse Coopers and lead the firm's Cybercrime Prevention and Response Practice and since 2002 he has been Vice President of Trustworthy Computing and Chief Security Strategist for Microsoft.

See his Microsoft biography for more information about Mr. Charney's background and copies of his testimony to Congress on cybersecurity and consumer data and cyber terrorism.

This talk will present and discuss a brief iconography of victory from the 17th century to the present. The pictures shown illustrate how Western ideas about what it takes to win wars have changed in fundamental ways over time. They thus provide a context for explaining the modern use of force by the West and why it encounters such significant problems, for example, in Iraq.

Dr Jan Willem Honig is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of War Studies. He holds a degree in Medieval History from the University of Amsterdam and received a PhD in War Studies in 1989. Prior to joining the Department in 1993, he taught at the University of Utrecht and New York University. He was also a Research Associate at the Institute for East-West Security Studies in New York. In 1999-2000, Dr Honig was a Visiting Fellow at the Remarque Institute of New York University and the Centre of International Studies at Princeton University.

Dr Honig is an adjunct faculty member within the IR Program at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and directs the spring course in London entitled "Contemporary War and the Liberal Conscience". For more information on this course visit the course website at: http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/ir/globalprogramspages/london.asp.

Professor David M. Crane, former Director of the Office of Intelligence Review at the Department of Defense, will discuss issues of intelligence oversight.

Dr. Akio Takahara is Professor of Contemporary Chinese Politics at the Graduate School of Law and Politics, University of Tokyo, and is currently a visiting scholar at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University.  He will discuss the impact of China on East Asian security.

Previously he taught at Rikkyo University (1995-2005) and Obirin University (1991-1995), and was a visiting scholar at the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong (1989-1991) and the Japanese Embassy in China (1996-1998). He also is a member of the Japanese Steering Committee of the International Politics Graduate Course at the School of International Studies, Beijing University. Dr. Takahara received a D.Phil. from the University of Sussex, and a B.A. from the University of Tokyo. His publications include "Japanese NGOs in China," Japan's Relations with China: Facing a Rising Power (Lam Peng Er, ed., forthcoming), New Developments in East Asian Security (2005, co-editor, in Japanese), and Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin (1999, co-author, in Japanese).

Dr. Takahara's biography is at http://www.spfusa.org/Program/av2005/nov2905.htm.

New York Times staff writer Eric Lichtblau, who reports on terrorism and national security issues, will discuss issues on reporting on the Global War on Terror and government secrecy in the post 9/11 age. Mr. Lichtblau has been a staff writer for the New York times since 2002, and previously worked for the Los Angeles Times for 15
years. He covers the Department of Justice, terrorism, and national security issues for
the New York Times Washington Bureau. He is also currently working on a book about
the Justice Department and the changing nature of law enforcement post 9/11.
Mr. Lichtblau is a native of Syracuse.
 

Mr. Lichtblau's most recent articles may be found here, at the New York Times website.

It’s a sad fact that public officials, health care providers, business owners, and citizens now feel the need to prepare for the impact a terrorist strike might have on an urban community. News coverage would be dramatic and its images graphic. Public concern would escalate as citizens seek to assess their threat level. Local authorities would scramble to intervene, and health care workers would prepare to render aid and answer questions. Public reaction and subsequent ripple effects would likely go far beyond any direct consequences of the event itself. Emergency response systems, information and communication channels, and social support organizations are likely to interact with the particular characteristics of a terrorist event in a nonlinear fashion to produce a wide range of physical, social, and economic impacts.

As a result, understanding those factors critical to predicting public response is crucial to our ability to model the consequences of a terrorist strike in an urban area, and to plan for recovery. Sixteen hypothetical damage scenarios were systematically varied according to non-terrorism vs. terrorism, explosions vs. infectious disease releases, terrorists’ motives as demands to release prisoners vs. solely to instill fear, non-terrorists’ motives as non-intentional vs. intentional (criminal), victims as government officials vs. tourists, non-terrorist incidents as involving no negligence vs. negligence, terrorist acts as non-suicidal vs. suicidal, and number of casualties (0, 15, 495). For these scenarios, they were asked to address a number of questions regarding their perceptions and likely behaviors during and following an accident or terrorist strike. Results from regression modeling indicated that terrorism and the mechanism used were most influential followed by the presence of suicide or negligence, motive, and victim. Number of casualties made little difference once these other factors were accounted for.

To forecast community response, a system dynamics simulation model was introduced that incorporated the study’s survey findings. For different types of accidental and terrorist events, this model simulated the immediate and mid-term diffusion of fear in a community, the number of calls to community help lines, and the mitigating impact of community support. The simulation model and empirical results will be discussed. Likewise, factors that may play an important role in a community’s ability to recover will be addressed, including communicating with the public about risk.

William J. Burns.  Dr. Burns holds a Ph.D. in Decision Science from the University of Oregon. His early work focused on the public’s response to natural disasters and technological accidents. This research was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation and has been published in academic journals such as Management Science and Risk Analysis. He has been a member of the faculty at Decision Research (a non-profit research institute that has made important contributions to risk perception research), University of Iowa, UC Davis, and currently teaches part-time at Cal State University San Marcos. Influenced by the events of September 11 his research is now focused on modeling public response and the subsequent economic impacts of a terrorist strike on an urban area. His most recent paper (with Paul Slovic) “Predicting Public Response to a Terrorist Strike” was awarded ‘Best Paper’ at the 2005 Society for Risk Analysis Conference.

Trying Terrorists:  Preventative Detention, Military Commissions, and Judicial Review

Tuesday, April 25, 3:00 p.m., Room 104, College of Law

In November 2001, President Bush authorized the military detention and trial of international terrorists, particularly members of al Qaeda. Since then in the range of 500-600 detainees have been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - and the Department of Defense, Congress, and the federal judiciary have been struggling to shape the rules for detaining, interrogating, and trying these suspects. Guest speakers Colonel Denise Vowell and Professor Robert Chesney will discuss a number of the issues raised by the detention and trial by military commission of terrorist suspects.

Col. Denise Vowell is the recently retired Chief Trial Judge of the U.S. Army and a Colonel in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corp. As Chief Trial Judge, Col. Vowell supervised all Army military judges and military magistrates world wide and tried cases herself. She also teaches trial advocacy, judicial methodology, and military criminal law. Col. Vowell enlisted in the Army in 1973, was commissioned in the Women’s Army Corps and detailed as a military police officer. The Army sent her to law school and in 1981 she graduated from University of Texas School of Law. Since then she has been an Army lawyer and has the distinction of being the first woman to be the Staff Judge Advocate for the Army’s 1st Infantry Division. Early this year Col Vowell became a Special Master of the United States Court of Federal Claims.

Professor Robert Chesney is a law professor at Wake Forest University School of Law, where he teaches national security law, constitutional law, evidence, and civil procedure. His research and scholarship focuses ways in which the legal system responds to national security threats, and how to establish a reasonable and effective legal response to the threat posed by terrorism. He serves as secretary of the Section on National Security Law of the Association of American Law Schools, is an editorial board member of the Journal of National Security Law and policy, and is the founder and moderator of a national security law listserve for professors and professionals working in the area of national security law. Professor Chesney graduated from Harvard Law School in 1997 and earned his undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University in 1994.

Professor Mark Galeotti and Bartosz Stanislawski will discuss the intersection of drugs, crime, and terrorism.