As scholars and practitioners in the field, INSCT Research and Practice Associates bring additional academic and practical subject matter expertise to the Institute. They engage in collaborative projects, teach, and share their original research and practitioner perspectives with INSCT students and faculty.

Although they may be located at other institutions, Associates share INSCT's commitment to interdisciplinary teaching, research, and public service directed at problems of security and terrorism.

Jeff Breinholt

Mr. Breinholt is Deputy Chief, Counterterrorism Section, United States Department of Justice, where he oversees the nationwide terrorist financing criminal enforcement program. He recently took a leave from the Department of Justice to serve as Director of National Security Law at the International Assessment and Strategy Center. Mr. Breinholt previously served as the Regional Antiterrorism Coordinator for the western and Pacific states and as a trial attorney in the Counterterrorism Section's international terrorism branch.  He joined the Justice Department with the Tax Division in 1990, and spent six years as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Utah before joining the Counterterrorism Section in 1997.  In 2003, he was honored with the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Furthering the Interests of U.S. National Security, for his work in crafting creative legal theories that resulted in the initiation of several important prosecutions in the aftermath of 9/11.

    He is a frequent lecturer on law enforcement and intelligence topics.  He is the author of two books, Counterterrorism Enforcement: A Lawyer’s Guide (DOJ Office of Legal Education 2004), and Taxing Terrorism, From Al Capone to Al Qaida: Fighting Violence Through Financial Regulation (forthcoming 2006).  His other recent publications include “How About a Little Perspective?  The USA PATRIOT Act and the Uses and Abuses of History,” 9 Texas Review of Law & Politics 226 (Fall 2004) and “Seeking Synchronicity: Thoughts on the Role of Domestic Law Enforcement in Counterterrorism,” 21 American University International Law Review (forthcoming December 2005).

    He is a graduate of Yale University (B.A., 1985) and the UCLA School of Law (J.D., 1988).

Paul Finkelman

Mr. Finkelman is the President William McKinley Professor of Law and Public Policy and Senior Fellow, Government Law Center at Albany Law School.  Prior to joining the faculty at Albany Law, Finkelman served as Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa College of Law. Previously Professor Finkelman held the John F. Seiberling Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Akron's Law School, as well as chairs at Cleveland State University Law School and the University of Miami, and he has taught at a number of other law schools and in history departments.     

A specialist in American legal history, Constitutional law, race and the law, and First Amendment issues, Professor Finkelman is the author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books, and numerous scholarly articles and book chapters.  Some of his books include Constitutional Law in Context (2006), American Legal History:  Cases and Materials (2005), Terrible Swift Sword:  The Legacy of John Brown (2005), Landmark Decisions of the United States Supreme Court (2003), Library of Congress Desk Reference to the Civil War (2002), and A March of Liberty:  A Constitutional History of the United States (2002).  Professor Finkelman has a B.A. in American Studies from Syracuse University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of Chicago. 

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Robert Kanter

Dr. Kanter is a Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Critical Care & Inpatient Pediatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse. He serves as an attending physician in the Pediatric ICU at University Hospital in Syracuse. He participates in hospital planning for emergency preparedness at University Hospital, as well as regional and statewide disaster preparedness as physician advisor for the Emergency Medical Services for Children Advisory Committee of the NY State Department of Health. His health services research investigates the matching of children's acute health care needs and existing hospital resources in routine daily use and in major emergencies. Dr. Kanter earned his M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and his M.A in Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University. 

Dr. Kanter's faculty webpage at SUNY Upstate

Michael A. Innes

 

Michael A. Innes is a Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Leeds. His research and writing focuses on intermediacy in armed conflict, and touches on broader theories and histories of political violence, geopolitics and asymmetry after the Cold War, surrogate warfare and the state, transnational threat networks, physical and cognitive depth in clandestine basing operations, state failure and collapse, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and political and legal exceptionalism. He has been an Associate Fellow of the Center for Developing Area Studies, McGill University, and a Graduate Research Fellow of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies. His publications include two edited monographs, Denial of Sanctuary: Understanding Terrorist Safe Havens (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007), Bosnian Security After Dayton: New Perspectives (New York and London: Routledge, 2006), as well as articles, occasional papers, essays, and book reviews in such journals as Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Civil Wars, SAIS Review, Journal of Conflict Studies, Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, Cultural Survival Quarterly, and Transitions Online/Balkan Reconstruction Report. He is currently preparing a third edited book, provisionally entitled Proxy Wars: T

he Politics of Armed Surrogacy.

Jed Ipsen

Jed Ipsen is a Brookings Institution LEGIS Fellow assigned as Professional Staff, U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.  He also serves as a Research Associate at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University.  His research agenda focuses on the establishment of federal programs to cut off terror financing.  Additionally, Mr. Ipsen is Associate Director of Caux Round table, a group that looks into illicit financial flows among key stakeholder groups.  Jed Ipsen earned a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science with a minor in leadership studies from University of Minnesota.

LCDR Thomas Rancich (ret.)

LCDR Rancich is the owner of Off-Shore Consulting, a consulting firm that provides professional advice on leadership, team building, program development, and strategic vision, as well as anti-terrorism and security recommendations.  Through Off-Shore Consulting, LCDR Rancich (ret.) has provided private businesses with such services as vulnerability assessment in the context of the complex environment of international terrorism, training regarding leadership in ambiguous environments, and team building and strategy development advice.  His knowledge and skills in this area come from a twenty year Naval career, including thirteen years as a Special Warfare Officer (Navy SEAL), during which time LCDR Rancich had responsibility for combat operations, foreign relations, management, international diplomacy, and strategic planning for a number of operations including combating terrorism. LCDR Rancich served as Director of the Naval Warfare Development Command’s Combating Terrorism Warfare Innovation Development Team, which was stood up following September 11, and as Commander of Naval Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.  He also planned and conducted Naval Special Operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom, led the Commander Atlantic Fleet’s antiterrorism effort and program development, led Navy SEAL deployments to countries in South America, and led the primary Chemical/Biological/ Special Situation Response Detachment during Operation Desert Storm. 

He is also a qualified Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician and has built and defused Improvised Explosive Devices.  LCDR Rancich is a 1984 graduate of Syracuse University and has a M.B.A. from William & Mary University.  LCDR Rancich’s pre-USS Cole bombing views on how the Navy could improve its antiterrorism program are outlined in his article “Combating Terrorism,” which was published by the U.S. Naval Institute’s magazine, Proceedings, in November 2000.

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Alasdair S. Roberts

Alasdair Roberts is the Jerome L. Rappaport Professor of Law and Public Policy at Suffolk University Law School.  He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow of the Constitution Unit, School of Public Policy, University College London.

Professor Roberts has two research interests: public sector restructuring, and transparency in government.  His work has been widely published.  In 2005 he received the Johnson Award for Best Paper in Ethics and Accountability in the Public Sector.  His book Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age, published by Cambridge University Press, received the 2006 Louis Brownlow Book Award from the National Academy of Public Administration, the 2007 book award from the Section on Public Administration Research of the American Society for Public Administration, the 2007 Best Book Award of the Academy of Management's Public and Nonprofit Division, and the 2007 Charles Levine Memorial book Prize of the International Political Science Association's Research Committee on the Structure of Governance.

Professor Roberts is a member of the Board of Editors of Administration & Society, Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, Governance, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, International Public Management Journal, International Review of Public Administration, Revue Gouvernance, Open Government, and freedominfo.org.

A native of Pembroke, Ontario, Canada, Professor Roberts began his BA in politics at Queen's University in 1979.  He received a JD from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1984, a Master's degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1986, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University in 1994.

From 2001 to 2008, Professor Roberts taught at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.  From 1990-2001, he taught in the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University, Canada.

http://www.aroberts.us/

David Tal

Dr. Tal is a Visiting Professor, department of history, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.  He is an expert in the history of the Middle East as well as nuclear proliferation and disarmament. Dr. Tal is a member of the Israeli Military History Association’s Board, and has served as an advisor to the Military and Diplomatic Studies Program at the Graduate School of History at Tel-Aviv University. He is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including the Kennedy Library’s Arthur Schlesinger Fellowship. Professor Tal has published several books, including War in Palestine, 1948: Strategy and Diplomacy (2004), edited The 1956 War: Collusion and Rivalry in the Middle East (2001), Israel’s Conception of Current Security: Origins and Development 1949-1956 (1998) and collaborated with Anat Kurz and Maskit Burgin on Hizballah, Palestinian Jihad Islamic and Hamas (1993). His articles have appeared in a variety of journals and his new book: The American Nuclear Disarmament Dilemma, 1945-1963 will be published by the Syracuse University Press in October 2008. He is currently working on the history of the strategic arms limitation talks and détente.

David Van Slyke

David Van Slyke is an Associate Professor of Public Administration in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and is a Senior Research Associate in the Campbell Institute of Public Affairs.

Professor Van Slyke is involved in a range of contract management research with Trevor Brown of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at Ohio State University and Matthew Potoski in the Department of Political Science at Iowa State University. He is currently working with several federal agencies, state and local governments, and nonprofits on contracting and contract management.  His current contracting research is on contract management capacity and relational “incomplete” contract design.  In addition, Professor Van Slyke has been the principal investigator for several studies on philanthropy and nonprofit management as well as projects in which government and nonprofit organizations seek to adopt strategic management tools and practices. He has also worked closely with nonprofit organizations on enhancing the effectiveness of their fundraising and resource development operations.

Professor Van Slyke regularly speaks to senior government officials from other countries (e.g., China and India) on contracting and public-private partnerships, strategic management, policy implementation, government oversight and nonprofit organizations as part of the Maxwell School’s Executive Education. He also speaks to groups associated with the National League of Cities, the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, and the Cornell Municipal Clerks Institute. Professor Van Slyke also serves as a committee member on the transnational NGO project in the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs.

Professor Van Slyke received his Ph.D. in Public Administration and Policy from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy of the University at Albany, State University of New York.