I am professor and Head of the Political Science Department at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. My research and teaching interests revolve around the conditions associated with political violence.  Currently I am working on three research projects. The first addresses the structural and geo-spatial conditions associated with modern maritime piracy. This project was funded by the Office of Naval Research through the Minerva Research Initiative from 2013-2017. The second project explores the principal drivers of domestic terrorism in democratic states. The third project investigates the conditions associated with maritime crime and conflict in the Indo-Pacific region. This project was funded by the Office of Naval Research through the Minerva Research Initiative from 2020-2023.