Political Science Professor Andrew L. Ross has been named the new director of the University of New Mexico’s Office for Policy, Security, and Technology. He assumed the position Sept. 1. Ross was selected to head OPST after a national search by a committee chaired by Bert Useem, director of the Institute for Social Policy and professor of sociology.
OPST is a collaboration between UNM and Sandia National Laboratories that focuses on promoting and facilitating interdisciplinary policy-relevant work at the intersection of security and technology.
Ross succeeds Roger L. Hagengruber, who has served as director of OPST since its was established in 2003.
Ross said he is “thrilled to have the opportunity to develop OPST programs.” Since his arrival he has been building a faculty network to provide the foundation for OPST’s work, developing research project initiatives, and designing a curriculum development grant program. He will teach a new course on “International Relations: Theory and Practice” in the spring of 2006.
Ross brings a broad base of experience in national security and defense planning, research, education and program development. He comes to UNM after 16 years at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I., where he held a variety of positions, including research professor in the Strategic Research Department of the Naval War College’s Center for Naval Warfare Studies, acting director of the college’s advanced research program and co-leader of the college’s strategy task group, one of four task groups established to support the Chief of Naval Operations in the global war on terror.
His work with the strategy task group led to a Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service award in 2002. Prior, Ross served as first a Secretary of the Navy senior research fellow and then professor of National Security Affairs in the Naval War College’s National Security Decision Making Department, where he taught the college’s core course on strategy and force planning.
Ross’ work on U.S. grand strategy, national security and defense planning, regional security, weapons proliferation, and security and economics has appeared in numerous journals and books. He edited “The Political Economy of Defense: Issues and Perspectives,” (1991) and co-edited three editions of “Strategy and Force Planning,” (1995, 1997, 2000). His current research focuses on the U.S. grand strategy debate and military transformation.
Ross has held research fellowships at Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, the University of Illinois and the Naval War College; he also taught in the political science departments at the University of Illinois and the University of Kentucky. He earned his MA and PhD at Cornell University and his BA, summa cum laude, at American University.