UNM Political Science Professor Gregory Gleason will be a visiting professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch, Germany, during 2007 and 2008. The Marshall Center is a U.S. Department of Defense and German Ministry of Defense educational institute focusing on international relations and national security.
Photo: Political Science Professor Gregory Gleason
“It’s a graduate school designed for people interested in international affairs,” Gleason said. “It’s a training institute operated by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency.”
As a professor of Security Studies, his areas of emphasis include international relations – including issues of democracy building in former totalitarian countries, peace and conflict studies and regional security.
Gleason’s responsibilities at the Marshall Center include working directly with scholars and government officials from Central Asia and the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The class instruction will be given in English and Russian.
“These countries have just gone through a difficult period of communism and post-communism reconstruction,” Gleason said. “They are moderate Muslim countries that play an increasingly important role in international affairs, especially given their wealth of mineral and energy resources. Today these countries face very serious challenges from political extremism, international terrorism and poor governance practices.”
In Gleason’s nearly two decades of university service as a political scientist at UNM, he has been a close observer and prolific writer about political affairs and international relations in the countries of Eurasia. The demise of the Soviet Union changed Gleason’s views on the theory and practice of international affairs.
Since its inception in 1993, the Marshall Center has provided instruction in international security to more than 5,600 military and civilian government officials.
The Marshall Center engages international specialists in security studies, consisting of 32 faculty members from 10 countries, including the U.S. and Germany, as well as Austria, Canada, Croatia, France, Poland, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK. The Marshall Center’s program participants come primarily from the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and the countries of the former USSR.