Mark Abdollahian

Dr. Mark Abdollahian delivers advanced analytics for data driven decision-making. His global experience spans national policy, corporate strategy, economic development, finance, public-private partnerships, M&A and business process reengineering. He creates, architects and implements enterprise class data and strategy analytics used by the US Government, the World Bank and the United Nations as well as private sector companies worldwide, including Arthur Andersen, Motorola, McKinsey, Raytheon, British Aerospace, Chevron and DeBeers. Dr. Abdollahian develops, manages and applies behavioral and predictive analytics to strategic and operational issues across government and business, focusing on bringing to market next generation innovations today.

Dr. Abdollahian is author of dozens of articles and two books on data driven strategy across business, politics and economics. He is a board member for several private and nonprofit enterprises and lectures to audiences worldwide. Dr. Abdollahian is a Full Clinical Professor at the Division of Politics and Economics, Claremont Graduate University, cofounder of Sentia Group, and currently chief executive officer of ACERTAS. In addition to Bachelors degrees in Political Science, History, and French from Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Abdollahian holds a Master’s degree in Foreign and Defense Policy and a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Mathematical Modeling from Claremont Graduate University.

Professor Abdollahian's interests include strategic decision making, international political economy, sustainable development, economics, growth, human social cultural behavioral modeling, econometrics, predictive analytics, computational modeling and simulation, data analytics, and visualization. 

Courses Taught

• SPE471 Strategy for Politics, Economics, and Business
• SPE316 Computational and Agent Based Modeling
• PP487 Applied Data Analysis
• SPE448 Social Network Analysis
• SPE439 System Dynamics
• SPE486 Data Analytics and Visualization
• SPE438 Dynamic Modeling

Recent Research

• "Pathways to Stability for Transition Governments in the Middle East and North Africa.” Forthcoming with Jacek Kugler et.al. Asian Politics and Policy. 

• Yang, Zining and Mark Abdollahian, 2014. “Trade, Income Convergence and Sustainable Development” chapter 4 in Handbook of the International Political Economy of Trade, ed David A. Deese, Edward Elgar Publishers, Cheltenham, UK.

• Abdollahian, Mark, Jacek Kugler, Brice Nicholson and Hana Oh. 2010. “Politics and Power” chapter 3 in Estimating Impact: A Handbook of Computational Methods and Models for Anticipating Economic, Social, Political and Security Effects. Alexander Kott and Gary Citrenbaum eds. Springer Science & BusinessMedia, New York.

• Abdollahian, Mark, Marina Arbetman-Rabinowitz, Kyungkook Kang, Jacek Kugler, Hal Nelson and Ronald Tammen, 2012. “Political Performance” chapter 1, in The Performance of Nations, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc.

Patrick James

MARINA ARBETMAN-RABINOWITZ

Senior Fellow at TransResearch Consortium and Claremont Graduate University, Senior Consultant at Sentia Group Inc.
Email: mar@sentiagroup.com

Dr. Marina Arbetman-Rabinowitz, is a Senior Fellowat the TransResearchConsortium and Claremont Graduate University and a Senior consultant at Sentia Group Inc. She is a political economist with vast experience in estimation of conflict, socio-economic and political measures. She is a consulting with the World Bank in Cambodia, Mongolia, Philippines and numerous Latin American nations including Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

Dr. Arbetman-Rabinowitzis pioneer in the concept of political extraction and the major force behind the creation of political reach. Dr. Arbetman-Rabinowitzcoordinated much of the construction of political reach and extraction measures, and the compilation and integration of the fiscal and economic indicators that are required to empirically assess Political Performance. Her extensive prior data experience helped enormously in the collection and analysis of information for complex environments like Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa.

Previously, Dr. Arbetman-Rabinowitz held academic positions at Universidad of Buenos Aires, University of Missouri-Columbia, and Tulane University. She completed much of her early training in Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina and obtained a PhD at Vanderbilt University in 1990.

Other related research work, publication, websites, and links

• Demographic and Economic Consequences of Conflict.
• Power Distribution and Oil in the Sudan: Will the Comprehensive Peace Agreement turn the Curse into a Blessing.
• Government Structure, Strength, and Effectiveness.
• Political Capacity and Economic Behavior.
• The Economic Costs of the American Civil War: A Reexamination.
• Exploring the `Phoenix Factor with a Collective Good Perspective.
• Choosing Among Measures of Power: A Review of the Empirical Record.

KRISTIN JOHNSON

Assistant Professor, Department of Politics, University of Rhode Island
Email: Kristin_Johnson@mail.uri.edu
Work Phone: 401­ 874-5495

Dr. Johnson's primary research interests focus on the influence of state capacity on three major areas:conflict and human security, individual attitudes within countries, and human development. Her work examines the role ofstate capacity across levels of analysis, including regional, national, and provincial level contexts. Currently she is Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island and a Director at the TransResearch Consortium.

Dr. Johnson specializes in state capacity on individual attitudes and behavior in African countries. Her work in this area examines the influence of state capacity on building political legitimacy and trust, social capital, and political participation, with emphasis on the influence of state capacity on regional and sub national conflict in Sudan following the 2011 referendum for Southern Sudanese independence. Her current research efforts extend these studies into examination of sub national political performance, conflict, and trust in Nigerian states. 

A final related research emphasis evaluates the role of political capacity and procedural democracy in influencing levels and types of human rights violations in Mexican states. This effort is extended to examining the role of human security and state capacity in motivating migration between Mexican states and in examining the influence of political capacity on variance in human development in Mexican states.Kristin Johnson received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Claremont Graduate University in 2007.

Other related research work, publication, websites, and links

• Capacity to Trust: Political Capacity, Conflict, & Political Trust in Africa 1993-2007.
• Hybridity, Political Order, and Legitimacy: Examples from Nigeri.
• Human Rights in Transition: Sub National Democratization in Mexico 2001-2007.
• Inclusive Institutions & State Development in Africa.
• Political Reach, Violence, and Political Participation in Africa 2000-2008.
• Sub National Capabilities and Internal Conflict: Resources & Revenues in Nigeria.
• Patterns of Human Rights Violations in Mexican States 1994-2008.
• Human Security, Economic Transitions & Internal Migration in Mexico 1997-2009.
• Institutional Capacity, Conflict, and the Development of Social Capital: A Sub National Analysis of Nigeria.

Young Joon Kim

Name: Young Joon Kim
Email Address: youngjoon-kim@hotmail.com

Dr. Young Joon KIM is an associate research fellow in the Northeast Asian Strategy division at Institute for National Security Strategy of Republic of Korea, and a lecturer at Yonsei University, Graduate School of International Studies. He finished his doctrate in 2013 from Claremont Graduate University, in World Politics and Methodology and holds an M.A. in International Relations from Korea University.

He is a Executive Committee Member of the Korean Association of International Studies and an Associate Editor of the Journal of East Asian Affairs. His recent publication includes " Appeasing the Fear of Abandonment in Asymmetric Alliances : The ROK-US Alliance Case.", "The Evolution of Power Transition Theory: A Critical Review." and "The Application of Agent-Based Model in Political Science." Dr. Kim's research focuses on Chinese foreign policy, Inter-Korean relations, East Asian international relations, and Alliance.

Thomas Volgy

Professor at University of Arizona

Email: volgy@email.arizona.edu

Thomas J. Volgy received his BA from Oakland University, and his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota in Political Science. He moved to Tucson to take a position at the University of Arizona, where he is a professor of political science, specializing in international politics and the comparative analysis of international regions. He also served from 1995 to 2015 as the executive director of the International Studies Association, the largest association of its kind focusing on international studies, with a membership of over 7,000 scholars from 110 countries. He is also a faculty research affiliate at the Pardee Center, University of Denver. He also engages in consulting work in the United States and overseas, involving business consultation, political consultation, and international trade. He served in public office from 1977 through 1991 as a member of the Tucson city council, and then as Mayor of Tucson.

He has published over fifty articles in professional journals, and is the author and/or co-author of several books, including Major Powers and the Quest for Status in International Politics (2011), Mapping the New World Order (2009), International Politics and State Strength (2003), Politics in the Trenches: Experimenting with Democracy in America (2001), and The Forgotten Americans (1992). His latest work is focused on regions, hierarchy, and conflict in international politics, and on status considerations in international politics.

He has been honored by the University of Arizona with awards for teaching and distinguished public service, and by the International Studies Association for excellence in public service.

Yi Feng

Carole Alsharabati

Professor & Director of the Political Science Institute at Université Saint Joseph, Beirut

Email: carole.alsharabati@gotocme.com

Carole Alsharabati is the Director of the Political Science Institute at Université Saint Joseph in Beirut where she also teaches statistics, game theory, macroeconomics, political economy, conflict resolution, negotiation, and political communication. Her current research centers on refugees and migration. 

Carole provides consulting on security reform, focusing on quantitative analysis and process automation. In 2014, Carole participated in the creation and launching of an anti-Corruption whistleblowing NGO (Sakker El Dekkene). Carole has further consulted for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and the Lebanese Ministry of Interior on electoral reform. 

She is a founding partner of CME Offshore sal, a software outsourcing company with 150 employees in Lebanon and over 200 worldwide. She has co-authored a publication on “Power Transitions: Strategies for the 21st Century”. Carole holds a PH.D. in Political science from Claremont Graduate University with emphasis on international relations and quantitative methodology. She is fluent in English, French, and Arabic.