Center for Eastern and Central European Russian and Eurasian Studies (CECERES)

Khemaies Jhinaoui obtained a degree in public law, a postgraduate degree in public law and a certificate of advanced studies in political science and international relations. In 1978, he obtained a certificate of competence in the legal profession.

In 1979, Jhinaoui began working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he held numerous positions in the diplomatic corps.

In May 1996, he was sent to Israel to open his country's interest office in Tel Aviv.

In January 2006, he was appointed director of political and economic affairs and cooperation with Europe and the European Union in the foreign affairs ministry.

Between 2008 and 2011, he was Ambassador of Tunisia to Russia, being also accredited as non-resident of all the member countries of the CIS, including Ukraine and Georgia, despite Georgia leaving CIS in 2009.

After the Tunisian revolution of 2011, Khemaies Jhinaoui was appointed Secretary of State to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Béji Caïd Essebsi; his referent minister is Mouldi Kefi. Radhouane Nouisser has held the same position since January 17, and left his position at the same time as Jhinaoui, on December 24 of the same year.

Diplomatic advisor to the President of the Republic, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Habib Essid on January 6, 2016; he is confirmed to this position in the government of Youssef Chahed. He remained in this position until October 29, 2019, the date of his dismissal, although he had submitted his resignation.

Lt. General (ret.) Konstantinos Loukopoulos, during his career in the Hellenic Army was assigned in various posts in Greece and NATO.

Inter alia, he was Instructor and Course Director in the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany (2001-2004) where organized Courses and in many other non-NATO countries (Algeria, Tunisia, Ukraine, Russia) Mobile Training Teams  with over than 3000 students.

He was also assigned to NATO HQ/ International Military Staff (IMS) as Defense Planning Coordinator and Capabilities Policy Section Chief (2006-2009) having worked on allied defense planning at the highest level in NATO developing a profound expertise on all matters related to capabilities development . During his assignment chaired regularly the Military Committee Working Group for NATO Capabilities which means that directed and supervised the development of many high level Military Committee (MC) documents.

In Greece Lt General (ret) Loukopoulos, apart from his operational posts, served as Press Officer of the Chief of Defence and as Director of the International Affairs Directorate, in the MOD/General Secretariat for Armaments where he took part as Acting National Armaments Director in the NATO relevant Conference as well as in the European Defense Agency equivalent body.

He is a graduate of the Higher Staff College (Thessaloniki) and the National Defense College, while finished successfully his post- graduate Strategic Security Studies.

After his retirement, General (ret) Loukopoulos  has been working in the Defence and Security field and as a Geostrategic Analyst,  publishing  analysis and articles in Journals  and  daily and weekly Press while also serving as Executive Director of the Euro-Mediterranean Security and Cooperation Observatory.

General (Ret) Kenneth F. “Frank” McKenzie, Jr. became the Executive Director of the University of South Florida's Global and National Security Institute in May 2022. In July 2022, he also became the Executive Director of the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, also known as Cyber Florida.

General McKenzie's book, titled The Melting Point: High Command and War in the 21st Century, was released in 2024 by the U.S. Naval Institute Press and details his three years as commander of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM).

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, upon graduation from The Citadel in 1979, General McKenzie was commissioned into the Marine Corps and trained as an infantry officer.

He has commanded at the platoon, company, battalion, Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), and component levels. As a lieutenant colonel, he commanded First Battalion, Sixth Marines. As the Commanding Officer of the 22d MEU (SOC), he led the MEU on combat deployments to Afghanistan in 2004 and Iraq in 2005-06. In 2006-07 he served as the Military Secretary to the 33rd and 34th Commandants of the Marine Corps.

Upon promotion to Brigadier General in July 2007, he served on the Joint Staff as a Deputy Director of Operations within the National Military Command Center. In June 2008, he was selected by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be the Director of the Chairman's New Administration Transition Team (CNATT). In this

capacity, he coordinated the efforts of the Joint Staff and the combatant commands in preparing for and executing a wartime transition of administrations. (continued)

In June 2009, he reported to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, Afghanistan, to serve as the Deputy to the Deputy Chief of Staff (DCOS) for Stability. Upon his return from Afghanistan, in July 2010, he was assigned as the Director, Strategy, Plans, and Policy (J-5) for the U.S. Central Command. In August 2012, he reported to Headquarters Marine Corps to serve as the Marine Corps Representative to the Quadrennial Defense Review. In June 2014, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and assumed command of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Central Command.

In October 2015, he was assigned to the Joint Staff to serve as the Director, J-5, Strategic Plans and Policy, Joint Staff.

In July 2017, he was named the Director, Joint Staff. General McKenzie was promoted to the grade of General and assumed command of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in March 2019. He relinquished command of CENTCOM and retired from the Marine Corps on April 1, 2022, completing over 42 years of service.

General McKenzie is an honors graduate of the Armor Officer Advanced Course, Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and the School of Advanced Warfighting. He was selected as a CMC Fellow in 1999, and served as a Senior Military Fellow within the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. He has a master's degree in teaching with a concentration in history. He is currently the President of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Applied Engineering at the University of South Florida, a Distinguished Senior Fellow on National Security at the Middle East Institute, a Member of the International Advisory Committee of the National Council on U.S. Arab relations, and a Member of the National Security Advisory Council, U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. He is the Hertog Distinguished Fellow at the Jewish Institute for the National Security of America (JINSA) Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy.

Director

Professor of Political Science

Ph.D., Political Science, University of Arizona

Michael O. Slobodchikoff, PhD, Professor of Political Science, is founding director of the Center for Eastern and Central European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at Troy University. Among his many books are: India as Kingmaker:  Status Quo or Revisionist Power;  Building Hegemonic Order Russia's Way; Cultural Imperialism and the Decline of the Liberal Order:  Russian and Western Soft Power in Eastern Europe (with G. Doug Davis); and the co-edited volume, The Challenge to NATO:  Global Security and the Atlantic Alliance. Dr. Slobodchikoff is a leading expert on treaty networks and the creation of global and regional order.  He specializes in Russian security, international conflict, and peace. He is a regular contributor to BBC World News and Asharq Al-Awsat News. 

334 McCall Hall (MSCX)
mslobodchikoff@troy.edu
(334) 670-5926

http://spectrum.troy.edu/mslobodchikoff

Technical Services Librarian

MLIS, Library and Information Science, Louisiana State University

Olga Casey is the Technical Services Librarian at Troy University's Dothan campus library. A native of Ukraine, she moved to the U.S. in 2000 with a full scholarship to study Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University.  She was instrumental in establishing Troy Dothan Library's "Sister Library" partnership with the Central Ukrainian State University Library. 

R. Terry Everett Hall, Dothan Campus Library
oknyaz@troy.edu 
(334) 983-6556, Ext. 21-325

Professor of Political Science

Ph.D., Political Science, University of Arizona

G. Doug Davis, PhD is the director of the Master's of Science in International Relations program at Troy University where he is a European Security and Middle East regional expert. In addition to a masters and doctorate in political science from the University of Arizona, he has a European graduate degree from the Pontificia Università Lateranense. He has published academic papers and is the author, with Dr Michael Slobodchikoff, of a book that was recently published titled Cultural Imperialism and the Decline of the Liberal Order: Russian and Western Soft Power in Eastern Europe. His academic work has been translated and published in nine languages. He has international development experience in the Middle East where he has worked on projects funded by the European Union, Italian government, and the World Bank. He has international banking experience and has worked to open financial institutions internationally.  He has done work at multiple Polish universities and in 2020 was a visiting scholar at the University of Zagreb.  In 2019, he and colleagues were awarded a NATO public diplomacy grant to host the NATO at Seventy: A Strategic Examination of the Past, Present, and Future of the Atlantic Alliance Conference at Troy University.  He is contributor and co-editor of a book that will come out in the fall of 2021 titled The Challenge to NATO: Global Security and the Atlantic Alliance.

331A McCall Hall (MSCX)
gddavis@troy.edu
(334) 808-6280

Associate Professor of History

Ph.D., History, The George Washington University 

Dr. Gnoinska is an associate professor of history at TROY University. She received her Ph.D. from The George Washington University in January 2010. Her dissertation is titled "Poland and the Cold War in East and Southeast Asia 1949-1965." She has an M.A. in International Affairs from the Elliott School of International Affairs (GWU) and a B.A. in International Politics & Economics from Middlebury College. She is a Fulbright Scholar and Boren NSEP Fellow. She has published, as well as presented, her research in the United States and around the world.

She traveled extensively throughout East and Southeast Asia, including Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam, for both research and pleasure. She also spent much time traveling in Europe, especially former Eastern Europe, and in Russia. She speaks Polish, Russian, Japanese, and Spanish. She is currently working on revising her dissertation into two books: one on Poland's peacekeeping efforts during the Vietnam War and another on Sino-Polish relations during the Cold War with a specific focus on the role of the Sino-Soviet split and the U.S.-China opening.

230 Patterson Hall
mgnoinska@troy.edu
(334) 808-6408

Dr. Guo-Brennan is an academic, researcher and practitioner in the fields of public policy  and affairs, governmental relations, and public administration.  He is a Fulbright scholar, traveling and conducting research in Estonia and other parts of Europe.  His research centers around community and social cohesion in a global context in areas including globally competent local governance,  immigration policy, education policy, and crisis and emergency management and includes published research about governance in the US, Canada, England, and China.  He has extensive professional experiences in public administration, public policy analysis and development, leadership development, organizational management and culture, governmental relations, immigration policy, civic engagement and capacity in urban education reform and global competency in higher education.  Michael has provided consulting and management services for governments, non-profit organizations, business organizations, and newcomers who seek assistance in expanding business development and government relations.

mbrennan@troy.edu

Lecturer of English

Ph.D., Literature of the Western Europe, Nizhniy Novgorod State Pedagogical University

Dr. Kobeleva holds a Ph.D degree in Literature of the Western Europe from Nizhniy Novgorod State Pedagogical University, Russia. Her research and teaching interests include World Literature, Literary Translation, Advanced Grammar, Teaching English as a Second Language. As a native speaker of Russian, she also teaches Russian and Introduction to Russian Culture. She is the co-editor of The Sea in the Literary Imagination: Global Perspectives (Cambridge Scholars, 2019), Travel Letters from England, France, and Germany by Nikolai Gretsch in 3 vols., (Anthem Press, 2021). She has presented her research at many national and international conferences. She is the member of Nineteenth-Century Studies Association and South Atlantic Modern Language Association. Her current research involves translation of the novel The Black Woman by Nikolai Gretsch (1834).

253 Smith Hall
ekobeleva@troy.edu
(334) 670-3311

Professor of History 

Ph.D., History, Mississippi State University 

Dr. Puckett joined TROY University in 2005 where he teaches modern European history. His research interests are in the Holocaust and Southern Jewish history. He is the author of In the Shadow of Hitler: Alabama Jews, the Second World War, and the Holocaust, published by the University of Alabama Press in 2014. His work has appeared in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Southern Jewish History, Alabama Review, and Alabama Heritage, among other publications. He is completing another study, “The Jim Crow of All the Ages: Adolf Hitler and Civil Rights in the Heart of Dixie, 1933-1948” (also to be published by the University of Alabama Press), as well as working on a study of southern Jews in the Civil Rights Movement.

Puckett has been a Starkoff Fellow at the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and a Chancellor's Fellow at TROY University. He was appointed as the chair of the Alabama Holocaust Commission by Governor Robert Bentley. He currently serves as the vice-president/president-elect of the Southern Jewish Historical Society, and on the Board of Directors for the American Association of Holocaust Organizations and the Alabama Historical Association, and the Executive Council of the Association of Alabama Historians. Puckett lives in Wetumpka, Alabama, with his daughter Mae.

220 Patterson Hall
dpuckett45442@troy.edu
(334) 808-6685

Dean of Library Services

Ed.D., Educational Leadership, Policy, and law, Alabama State University

A senior level library administrator with over 25 years of experience in education, as well as considerable international experience, Christopher Shaffer is Dean of Troy University Libraries. He received his MLIS from the University of Alabama in 2005 and his Ed.D in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Law from Alabama State University in 2014. He has been published in several peer reviewed journals, has considerable experience writing and implementing grants, and has presented nationally. In 2015 the Carnegie Corporation, American Library Association, New York Times, and the New York Public Library presented him the I Love My Librarian Award for his work in public outreach. Shaffer's memoir, “Moon over Sasova,” about his experiences teaching English in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia in 1993 was published in November, 2021.

220 Patterson Hall
shafferc@troy.edu 
(334) 670-3263

Ph.D. (University of Arizona)
Lecturer of English

Theoretical Linguistics, Linguistic Theory, Syntax/Morphology, Historical Linguistics, Slavic Languages, English Composition. The Evolution of the Slavic Dual: A Biolinguistic Perspective (Lexington, 2019).  Additional publications in peer-reviewed journals.  Presentations at many prestigious theoretical- and Slavic-linguistics conferences in the United States and internationally.

Troy Campus Office: Smith Hall, Room 256 | tslobodchikoff@troy.edu

Associate Professor of Political Science

Ph.D., Political Science, University of North Texas

Brandon Stewart is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Troy University.  Dr. Stewart received his PhD in Political Science from the University of North Texas. His primary research interests include Ethnic Politics, Political Violence, East European Politics, and African politics. You can find his research published in journals such as Nationalism and Ethnic Politics and Social Science Quarterly.

132E McCall Hall (MSCX)
bstewart169746@troy.edu
(334) 808-6798

Department Chairman for International Security
Assistant Professor of International Security Studies

Ph.D., Public and International Affairs, Princeton University 

Lt Col Michael P. Kreuzer is Department Chairman for International Security and Assistant Professor of International Security Studies at Air Command and Staff College.  He holds a PhD in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University, a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Alaska Anchorage, a Masters of Strategic Intelligence from American Military University, and a BS in History from the US Air Force Academy.   He is a career intelligence officer who has served multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was the Director of Operations for Distributed Ground Station-1.  Prior to his current assignment, he was the Associate Military Provost for the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey, CA.  His research interests include the adoption of emerging technologies by states and military forces, and the organizational capacity required to adapt to changes in the operating environment.

Dean and Professor of Sociology at the School of Advanced Social  Studies in Nova Gorica (Slovenia)
Professor at the Faculty of Information Studies in Novo Mesto (Slovenia)

He is currently Dean and professor of sociology at the School of Advanced Social Studies in Nova Gorica (Slovenia). He is also professor at the Faculty of Information Studies in Novo mesto (Slovenia). He holds Jean Monnet Chair and is heading Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence “Strategic Observatory for Europe 2030” and is the Fellow of Regional Studies Association.

His main research interest is at the intersection of sociology of development and economic sociology, with a particular focus on innovations and technologies in regional development, sustainable development and the European Union Studies. Throughout his career he has been very active in academic institution building and
committed to raising young scholars. He was a visiting scholar at academic institutions in the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Lebanon and Croatia.

Ljubljanska c. 31a
SI-8000 Novo mesto, Slovenia (EU)

borut.roncevic@fis.unm.si 

borutroncevic.net