ADMINISTRATION

Director:                     
Dr. Yannis A. Stivachtis, SIGIL Director 

Georgeta Pourchot, SIGIL Associate Director for Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships

Dr. Aaron Brantly, SIGIL Associate Director for Academic Programs

Robert Hodges, SIGIL Assistant Director for Experiential Learning & Student Engagement 

Dr. John M. Nomikos, SIGIL Senior Advisor, Director, Research Institute of European & American studies (RIEAS) and Chairman, European Intelligence Academy (EIA)

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD

John Nomikos, Director, Research Institute of European & American studies (RIEAS) and Chairman, European Intelligence Academy (EIA)

Adriana Seagle, Assistant Professor of International Relations and Director of Intelligence and Security Studies, Bellevue University

FACULTY

Paul Avey (PhD, Political Science University of Notre Dame, 2013; MA, Political Science, University of Notre Dame, 2010; MA, Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 2006; BA, Political Science and History, University of Iowa, 2005) is Associate Professor of Political Science. His teaching and research interests include international relations, nuclear strategy and politics, U.S. foreign policy, and policy engagement. He is the author of Tempting Fate: Why Nonnuclear States Confront Nuclear Opponents (Cornell University Press, 2019), and author or coauthor of articles in International Security, Security Studies, International Studies Quarterly, Texas National Security Review, Journal of Global Security Studies, and Foreign Policy. Avey was a 2018-2019 Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow based at the U.S. Department of Defense, serving as Advisor for Strategy in the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development. Before coming to Virginia Tech, Avey was a pre-doctoral fellow with the Managing the Atom project and International Security Program at Harvard’s Belfer Center for International Studies, a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at MIT, and a postdoctoral fellow with the Tower Center for Political Studies at SMU.

Aaron Brantly (PhD, University of Georgia; MPP, The American University; BA, Queens University of Charlotte) is Associate Director for Academic Programs. His research and teaching interests include intelligence, integrated security, cyber conflict and security, terrorism, Big Data, and internet governance. He is the author of The Decision to Attack Military and Intelligence Cyber Decision-Making (University of Georgia Press, 2016) and co-author of Cybersecurity: An Introduction (Polity Press, 2018) and Cybersecurity: International Politics, Concepts and Organization (Routledge, 2017). He has also authored and co-authored of articles published in The Cyber Defense Review, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, and SAIS Review of International Affairs. He is currently working on a cyber deterrence project, leads the institution’s Integrated Security Destination Area, and serves as Director of the Tech4Humanity Lab for Computational Social Science Initiatives at Virginia Tech. He has also served at the U.S. Army Cyber Institute and the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

Georgeta Pourchot is Associate Director for Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships at the Center for European Union, Transatlantic and Trans-European Space Studies (CEUTTSS) at Virginia Tech. In that capacity, she engages the policy circles in Washington DC and various European capitals and involves them in CEUTTSS events. Her research and teaching interests include transatlantic relations, European security, European foreign and security policy, European organizations, and politics and international relations in Eurasia. She served as program manager and policy analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies working with great minds like Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger; and she was a member of the Romanian Parliament.

Priya Dixit (PhD, American University; MA, University of Sydney; BA, James Cook University) is Associate Professor of Political Science. Her research and teaching interests include terrorism and counter-terrorism, radicalization, and national and international security. She is currently also working on how the “war on terror” (and terrorism in general) is visualized and communicated by different social actors. A related interest is on U.S. foreign policy/national security and its conceptualization of threats, specifically the use of terrorism by states. She is the author of On Terrorism: “States” and “Terrorists” in Nepal and the United Kingdom (Manchester University Press, 2015); co-author of Critical Terrorism Studies: An Introduction to Research (Routledge, 2013); and co-editor of Critical Methods For the Study Of Terrorism (Routledge, 2014). She is the author and co-author of articles published in Peace & Security, International Studies Perspectives, ,” International Relations, and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

Robert Hodges (MA, BA Virginia Tech) is a PhD candidate. His research and teaching interests include intelligence, terrorism and counter-terrorism, national security, strategies of modern warfare, non-state actors, and particularly the religious foundations of jihadist ideologies. One of his roles at the university is student engagement with various members of the IC and diplomatic corps in Washington D.C. to this end, he serves as the advisor two student organizations focusing on strategic intelligence and diplomacy.

Eric Jardine (PhD, Carleton University) is Assistant Professor of Political Science. His research and teaching interest include, integrated security, the politics, policy, and criminal aspects of Dark Web, cybersecurity, digital trust, and terrorism and insurgency. He currently serves as Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. He is the author of Look Who’s Watching: Surveillance, Treachery and Trust Online (McGill-Queens University Press, 2016) and has published articles in New Media and Society, The Journal of Cyber Policy, Intelligence and National Security, Risk Analysis, The American Journal of Criminal Justice, The International Journal of Drug Policy, and the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.  

Yannis A. Stivachtis (PhD in Politics & International Relations, Lancaster University, 1996; MA in International Relations & Strategic Studies, Lancaster University, 1990; Postgraduate Certificate in International Law, Panteion University, 1989; BA in International Studies, 1988, Panteion University) is Professor of Political Science and Jean Monnet Chair. His research and teaching interests include grand strategy, socio-cultural intelligence, comparative intelligence, international intelligence cooperation, intelligence and European interior policies, European foreign, security, and defense policy, and European security. His current service includes Advisory Board member of the Center for Intelligence and Security Studies, Bellevue University; and Senior Advisor of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS). His most recent publications include: The State/Society Relationship in Security Analysis: Implications for U.S. Peace/State-building Operations, Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) (U.S. Army War College Press, 2015), Regional Security in the Middle East: Sectors, Variables and Issues (co-editor, e-International Relations Publishing, 2019), Conflict and Diplomacy in the Middle East: External Actors and Regional Rivalries (co-editor, e-International Relations Publishing, 2018), Revisiting the Idea of the European Union as Empire (Routledge, 2015). He has authored several book chapters and articles published in International Politics, Review of European Studies, Journal of Eurasian Studies, International Studies, Journal of European Integration, Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Contemporary Politics, International Studies Encyclopedia, Perspectives: Central European Review of International Relations, and New Balkan Politics.

Clara Suong (PhD, University of California, San Diego; MA, New York University; BA, Seoul National University) is Assistant Professor of Political Science. Her research and teaching interests include integrated security, national and international security, the role of information in international relations, and formal modelling. Prior to coming to Virginia Tech, she completed postdoctoral training at NYU and Duke University. Her work has received support from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense. She currently serves as Deputy Director of the Tech4Humanity Lab for Computational Social Science Initiatives at Virginia Tech. She has published articles in Conflict Management and Peace Science, Political Science Review, and Presidential Studies Quarterly.

AFFILIATED FACULTY

John M. Nomikos (PhD, Washington International University; MA, University of Hull; BA, Northeast Louisiana University) serves as Director of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS); Chairman of the European Intelligence Academy (EIA) and Founding Editor of the Journal of European and American Intelligence Studies (JEAIS)- (former Mediterranean and Balkan Intelligence (JMBI). He is the Head of the History, Politics and International Relations Department at the Athens Campus of Webster University (Webster Athens). He is Member of the Advisory Board for the Master Security Studies and Information Analysis (MASIS) at the American University in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and a Fellow in the International Association for Counter-Terrorism and Security Professionals (IACSPSEA). He previously served as Adjunct Professor (2005-2007) at the Department of International Relations in the University of Indianapolis (Athens Campus). In 2016, he earned a Certificate in Critical Thinking and Effective Writing from Globalytica LLC, USA. He specializes on transatlantic intelligence studies, intelligence reform, and national security architecture. He was awarded the “2019 Life Achievement for the Development of Intelligence Studies in Europe” by the International Association for Intelligence Education – European Chapter (IAFIE -Europe). He is a member of the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO).

Adriana Seagle (PhD, MA Virginia Tech; BA, Stefan cel Mare University, Romania) is Assistant Professor of International Relations and Director of the Intelligence & Security studies Program at Bellevue University. Her research and teaching interests include intelligence analysis, international intelligence cooperation (NATO and EU sharing intelligence practices), transnational crime, strategy, EU-Great power relations, EU strategy, and national and global security.