I am professor and Head of the Political Science Department at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a Global Security Fellow with the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy. 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 efficacy of UN peacekeeping operations. The third project explores the principal drivers of domestic terrorism in democratic states. ​Recently I was awarded a Minerva grant from the Office of Naval Research to investigate the conditions associated with maritime crime and conflict in the Indo-Pacific region. 

Currently I am serving as Lead Editor for International Studies Quarterly.