Sonya earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (International Relations/German Literature) from Emory University in 1990 and a MPA (International Relations) from Cornell University in 2000. She is a PhD candidate in the Government and International Affairs program at Virginia Tech (National Capital Region).

Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, National Defense University after a 26 year career as an Army Strategist. Her professional experiences include advising senior uniformed and civilian leadership within the Department of Defense in assignments ranging from Asia to Europe and the Middle East, as well as teaching at the United States Military Academy at West Point and the National War College at the National Defense University. She is a former East-West Fellow and former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her research interests include national and defense strategy, public diplomacy, and political and information warfare.

Dallas Shaw’s research interests include third party interventions in intrastate conflict, the impacts of 2nd battlefield foreign fighters, and understanding how organizations innovate and adapt. He is currently working on developing theories of symbiotic adaptation and artificial adaptation as causal mechanisms to explain how intervening military and civilian representatives develop governance in weak, failed, or failing states.

He is also a recently retired Marine Corps officer who has served 27 years in conventional and special operations units and led Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. He currently teaches expeditionary warfare to Marine Corps captains and international officers with the Marine Corps University.

When he is not working or studying he spends copious amounts of time adoring his wife Jeannette, visiting his son Hithem in North Carolina, wrestling with his youngest son Sami, teaching professional ethics courses, or fellowshipping with friends from church.

David graduated from the PGG program in 2014, having written a thesis on “A Muslim-led Strategy for Countering Violent Extremism”, which explored national security discourse as a platform for politics. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (1982), and earned a Masters in Resource and Security Strategy from the National Defense University (2005). Since 2008, David has led courses and mentored theses on security issues emerging in Islamic communities, and especially in the broader Middle East, at the National Intelligence University, Washington DC. In 2016, he co-founded and is the co-editor of the Journal of Strategic Intelligence. Prior to that, David was Assistant Professor of National Security Studies at the Eisenhower School of the National Defense University. In a former career, Captain Belt served twenty-six years in the Navy’s Special Operations Officer community, with a total of nine years in command, both afloat and ashore.

Heba earned her doctorate from Virginia Tech (VT) School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and an MA in International Relations from Georgetown University. Heba is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Mason University’s The Schar School of Policy and Government and an adjunct faculty at Georgetown University’s Master’s Degree Program at the Center for Democracy and Civil Society. She teaches courses on governments and politics of the Middle East and North Africa, Islam and politics, international relations theory, Israeli-Palestinian politics, and role of civil society in democratization. Dr. El-Shazli has 28 years of professional work experience in civic and union organizing, institution building, leadership skills training, labor education and training methodologies, political advocacy, and development. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her research interests include: civil society and social movements; challenges of democratization and political transition in the Middle East and North Africa, Islam and politics, and the political role of the labor movement.

Adis graduated from the PGG program in 2014. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies of International Burch University in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Adis wrote his dissertation on “Mobilizing for Ethnic Violence? Ethno-national Political Parties and the Dynamics of Ethno-politicization”, which won an Outstanding Dissertation Award at Virginia Tech. He earned his MA Degree in Political Science from Virginia Tech, while his BA is from Michigan State University. Adis produced several articles in notable academic journals that examined the mobilizing power of ethno-nationalist discourses in both prewar and postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina. His ongoing research examines nationalist mobilizations in the Balkans and the Caucuses.

Arnie works for Booz Allen Hamilton as an analyst in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2005 after 25 years of of service, having completed his last major assignment in Afghanistan. In May of 2016, defended his dissertation title on “Changing Patterns of Regionalism and Security in the Wider Black Sea Area: The Transformative Impact of Energy.” Arnie’s research interests are energy geopolitics and the confluence of the cyber and energy fields, particularly regarding the vulnerability of energy infrastructure.

Bryan earned his B.S. in the American Legal System from the US Academy (1998) and a M.S. in International Relations from Troy University (2006). He has concluded his Ph.D. in Planning, Governance, and Globalization in 2016. His research examined how we conceptualize the strategy making process and account for geostrategic change by exploring the decisions to employ counterinsurgency doctrine to failing war efforts in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. As a consultant at a not-for-profit organization, Bryan supports the Counterterrorism Partnerships Directorate within the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Combating Terrorism. In that capacity, he works with the US European Command CT Partnerships portfolio and supports the Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund.

Bryan’s book, Essence of Desperation: Counterinsurgency Doctrine as the Solution to War-Fighting Failures was published by Lexingtom Books in 2018.