Amy Austin Holmes headshot

New Book by Amy Austin-Holmes, ISCS Visiting Scholar

Book Summary:

In Statelet of Survivors, Amy Austin Holmes charts the history of one of the most radical experiments in self-governance of our time: a statelet created by Kurds, Arabs, and Assyrians.

The semi-autonomous region has its own military and police forces; schools with language instruction in Kurdish, Aramaic, and Arabic; local governance that empowers women and recognizes Yezidis; an economic eco-system that strives to undo decades of underdevelopment; and a new judicial system to hold perpetrators accountable for ISIS crimes.

Holmes traces the genealogy of the statelet to the Republic of Mount Ararat, a self-governing entity proclaimed in 1927 based on solidarity between Kurds and Armenian genocide survivors.

Trio of ISCS Fellows Awarded Smith Richardson Fellowships

Three ISCS fellows and current GW Ph.D. candidates in Political Science–Danielle Gilbert, Kendrick Kuo, and Shahryar Pasandideh–have been awarded World Politics and Statecraft Fellowships from the Smith Richardson Foundation for the 2020-21 academic year. The purpose of these $7,500 fellowships is “to support Ph.D. dissertation research on American foreign policy, international relations, international security, strategic studies, area studies, and diplomatic and military history.”

ISCS Fellow Accepts Pre-doctoral Fellowship at Texas A&M

Kendrick Kuo, an ISCS Fellow and Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at GW, has accepted a Pre-doctoral fellowship for the 2020-21 academic year at the Albritton Center for Grand Strategy in the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University. Kuo will spend the year completing his dissertation, “Military Innovation and the Illusion of Power,” which studies the conditions under which military innovation enhances or undermines combat power.

Dr. Glaser Receives the 2018 ISA ISSS Award

Dr. Charles Glaser, director of ISCS, recently received the ISA International Security Studies Section 2018 Distinguished Scholar Award. The Distinguished Scholar Award is given for life achievement in International Security Studies. Nominees for this honor have made major contributions to scholarship in the field both via their own research and writing and their mentorship of others.

A panel, honoring the contribution of Dr. Glaser, accompanied the award and included: John Mearsheimer (Chicago), Barry Posen (MIT), Andy Kydd (Wisconsin), Jon Caverley, (Naval War College), Rose Kelanic (Notre Dame), and Julia Macdonald (University of Denver). Click to watch Dr. Glaser’s ISA award acceptance and panel.