Air War College Faculty, “Regional Tours of the World: the Reports”

Air War College Faculty, “Regional Security Studies Tours of the World: the Reports”

Update for 2024, featuring Dr Ashly Townsen on Southern Africa; Dr Margaret Sankey on Southeast Asia; and Dr Alex Lassner on Eastern Europe.

This event is traditionally the grand finale of our ALWAC program, and often produces the liveliest exchanges of the year. 

As usual, the reception begins at 5:30 pm Central, the Zoom at about 5:45 pm, and the introductions at about 6-6:15 pm. The presentation begins about 6:15 pm, and question time runs about 7-7:30 pm. 

The Zoom and Facebook live stream are both recorded  from the introductions forward. Both are available a few hours later, with links on our ALWAC.org home page. 

The moderator will be ALWAC’s Executive Director, Col. Mark Conversino, CAO of the Air University.

The Air War College’s Regional Security Studies (RSS) course prepares senior leaders to evaluate the economic, political, cultural, and security issues within a particular region; and provides the opportunity for students to gain unique perspectives by studying and visiting one of approximately 13 international regions.

Faculty Panelists, 2024

 Dr Ashly Townsen (Southern Africa)

Townsen's advising interests include political movements, political protest, rebellion or revolution, psychology, terrorism, political and violent groups, African politics, and peacekeeping operations.

His research interests include subnational political violence and political behavior, usually involving experiments and/or spatial econometrics. 

Townsen's degrees comprise the PhD, political science, University of Illinois; and the BS, Political Science, Sam Houston State University.

During 2015-18 he served as Assistant Professor, Washington State University; and from 2018 as Assistant Professor, Air War College. 

 Dr Margaret Sankey (Southeast Asia)

Dr. Margaret Sankey earned a PhD at Auburn University in European military history, and taught military history, security studies and political science at Minnesota State Moorhead, before joining the staff at the USAF Air War College as the director of research and electives.

Currently, she is Air University's research coordinator in the Office of Sponsored Programs, matching and supporting Air University assets with Department of the Air Force research problems. 

Her publications include Blood Money: How Criminals, Militias, Rebel and Warlords Finance Violence; Jacobite Prisoners of the 1715: Preventing and Punishing Insurrection in Early Hanoverian Britain; Women and War in the 21st Century, and the NACBS Love Prize-winning article, co-written with Dr. Daniel Szechi, “Elite Culture and the Decline of Scottish Jacobitism, 1715-1745,” in Past and Present.

Dr Alex Lassner (Central Europe)

His research and advising Interests include foreign affairs and international security policies in Europe during the Interwar Period (1920-1938).

His degrees comprise the PhD and MA in history from The Ohio State University, specializing in modern military and central European history. He served as a Fulbright scholar in Austria, and a Presidential Fellow at OSU.

Prior to coming to the Air War College, Lassner worked as a consultant to the Mershon Center for International Security and Foreign Policy Studies; and as an Assistant Professor of Comparative Military Studies at the Air Command and Staff College.

During this period he published numerous articles and essays on modern military history, co-edited a book on the Dollfuss and Schuschnigg era in Austria, and undertook various research projects.

Dr. Lassner has lectured at major conferences in the United States, and by invitation in Italy and Austria. During summer 2005, Lassner taught courses in modern military history while a Visiting Professor of History at the International Summer School in Innsbruck, Austria. He is currently revising his manuscript on European foreign and security policies in the 1930s for publication.