The Air War College's regional studies tours: selections from Asia, Europe and Africa
Moderator: Maj. Gen. Walter Givhan, (Ret.), ALWAC President.
231 Montgomery St, Montgomery, AL.
Reception at 5:30 pm CT, briefing at 6:15 pm, and question time till 7:30 pm.
Webinar via Zoom: login and social time, from 5:45 pm CT.
For over a quarter century, this has been one of the highlights of ALWAC's program offerings. The presentations are given soon after the return from regional tours, with fresh insights we have not usually heard from the television reporters and online media.
Update for 2025, featuring Dr. Joshua Goodman on Latin America; Dr. Alex Lassner on Eastern Europe; Dr. Ashly Townsen on Southern Africa; and introduced by Dr. Margaret Sankey (Thailand and the Philippines).
This event often produces the liveliest exchanges of the year.
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, 2025
Dr Joshua Goodman (Latin America)
Dr. Goodman is assistant professor and the Benjamin Foulois Chair in International Security Studies at the Air War College. He is course director for the Regional Security Studies program.
Both a political scientist and a historian, he is focused on the fields of foreign policy analysis, security studies, and the Middle East. His research and teaching focus on the impact of civil-military relations and bureaucratic politics on strategic planning and military effectiveness, especially during counterinsurgency, as well as the Arab-Israeli Conflict and Persian Gulf security.
He holds the PhD in Political Science at Yale University (2018), and the MA in Middle East History from Tel Aviv University (2010).
Dr Ashly Townsen (Southern Africa)
Dr. Ashly Townsen is an Assistant Professor of National Security Studies at the Air War College where he serves as the course director for the Great Power Studies core course. Prior to joining the faculty at AWC, Dr. Townsen was an assistant professor at Washington State University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.
His research and teaching interests focus on civil and international conflict, African security, terrorism, rebellion, and political psychology. His research has been published in Journal of International Peacekeeping and International Studies Review; and he has received research grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense’s – Minerva Research Initiative.
Townsen's degrees comprise the PhD, political science, University of Illinois; and the BS, Political Science, Sam Houston State University.
Towsen visited Zambia and Botswana, including visiting the Zambian peacekeeping training center, and learning about their problems with both migration and crime coming out of Congo. In Botswana, the field study engaged with the Botswana Defence Force and learned about Botswana’s border security issues and anti-poaching efforts.
Dr Alex Lassner (Eastern Europe)
Dr. Lassner's 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.
Dr Margaret Sankey (Introduction; Thailand and the Philippines)
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.
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