Summer School at the Georgetown University
Read Kirill Zhirkov’s article about his participation at the summer school in security studies!
Kirill Zhirkov, research fellow at the LSCR, took part in the Summer School in security studies at the Georgetown University. He prepared a short story about his trip to Washington, Columbia D. C. for our website.
From May 21 till June 29 I participated in the Summer School in security studies held by the School of Continuing Studies (SCS) at the Georgetown University. The School took part in Washington, D.C.
Within the Summer School I participated in two courses. One of them was related to the anti-Americanism and globalization, and the second one dealt with Islamic terrorism and the Al-Qaeda organization. Participation in both courses was interesting and useful for my research projects within LCSR.
The first course was called “Globalization and Security” and taught by Michael J. Mazarr, the author of “Unmodern Men in the Modern World” – a book on the roots of resentment against modernity. Its ideas greatly influenced my own theoretical framework which I use in my research on anti-Americanism. Meeting Michael was enjoyable as he is a very pleasant person who is also very rigorous about his teaching.
Possibly, the most interesting feature of the course was the plenty of game-like case-studies, in which students participated as teams. On the one hand, it seemed unserious and even reminded the classes for the undergraduate students. On the other hand, it gave a great possibility to get know other student from the group better not only in the informal way.
Considering the importance for my research project on anti-Americanism, the most useful part of the course was reading the literature on the possible economic causes of anti-Americanism and the related discussions in the classroom. It helped me to develop several new and – I hope – interesting hypotheses regarding the roots of anti-Americanism. Most of them were presented during the LCSR Summer School in Zelenogorsk. I plan to have the first results by the international conference of the LCSR in November.
The second course was devoted to radical Islam and the Al-Qaeda organization and taught by Michael Scheuer. Professor Scheuer is an extremely interesting person who actually deserves a separate story. He is a former chief of CIA unit on bin Laden, while now he is most well-known as a public figure: For instance, he was active supporter of Ron Paul during the U.S. 2012 Presidential campaign. Scheuer’s views are not very popular among American establishment but he is regularly invited to the leading TV channels due to his conviction and oratory. Those interested can watch his speech at the University of California—Berkely:http://conversations.berkeley.edu/content/michael-scheuer.
Interestingly enough, being a conservative, Professor Scheuer is a liberal-style lecturer. He easily allows students to express their own opinions and engage in discussions with their peers and with the lecturer. As a result, some classes turned into the long and hot debates on the issues not directly related to Al-Qaeda.
Even taking into account that the views of Professor Scheuer are not shared by everyone, his lectures were extremely interesting and the ideology of Al-Qaeda took a big part in them. And of course making myself familiar with it through the primary sources – namely the messages of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri – was an enormous advantage for my project.
by Kirill Zhirkov