Victor Asal: Teaching about Political Violence

Talking Terror

Victor Asal currently serves as Chair of the Department of Public Administration and an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science. He received his PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also, along with R. Karl Rethemeyer, the co-director of the Project on Violent Conflict. Dr. Asal is affiliated with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence. Dr. Asal’s research focuses on the choice of violence by nonstate organizational actors as well as the causes of political discrimination by states against different groups such as sexual minorities, women and ethnic groups. In addition, Prof. Asal has done research on the impact of nuclear proliferation and on the pedagogy of simulations. Asal has been involved in research projects funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, The Department of Homeland Security, The National Science Foundation, and The Office of Naval Research. Some research that influenced Victor's career. Martha Crenshaw (1981). The Causes of Terrorism. Mark Juergensmeyer (2003). Terror in the mind of God: The global rise of religious violence. Ted Robert Gurr (2000). People vs. states. Some of Victor's key research The nature of the beast: Organizational structures and the lethality of terrorist attacks. With R. Karl Rethemeyer (2008) Gender ideologies and forms of contentious mobilization in the Middle East. With Richard Legault, Ora Szeleky, and Jonathan Wilkenfeld (2013) A Shot Not Taken: Teaching About the Ethics of Political Violence 1, 2. With Marcus Schulzke (2012)