NEWPORT, R.I. – The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-partisan policy institute headquartered in Washington, D.C., announced today that Luigi Bradizza, assistant professor of political science, has been named an “Academic Fellow” for 2012-13. Bradizza will travel to Israel at the end of May for an intensive course in terrorism studies, and in particular, how democracies can defeat the worldwide terrorist threat.
“Terrorism is the greatest threat today to the world’s democracies, including the United States and our allies around the globe,” said Clifford May, President of FDD. “To win the war against terrorism, we must win the war of ideas by promoting democracy and defeating the totalitarian ideologies that drive and justify terrorism.”
The FDD Academic Fellows program provides a 10-day learning experience to U.S.-based teaching and research professionals to provide them with cutting edge information about defeating terrorist groups. The 2012 program, which will be conducted at Tel Aviv University from May 27-June 6, includes lectures by academics, and military and intelligence officials, as well as diplomats from Israel, Jordan, India, and the United States. It also includes “hands on” experience through visits to police, customs, and immigration facilities, military bases, and border zones to learn the practical side of deterring and defeating terrorists.
At Salve Regina, Bradizza teaches courses on American government, the American presidency, Constitutional law, and civil liberties. He also teaches a course on political philosophy for graduate students in international relations.
“I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to listen and participate in the exchanges and interactions which we will all have in Israel,” Bradizza said. “It should be useful experience for courses I plan to teach next year … and I anticipate that what I learn will help me in my role of helping to bring speakers to campus and in guiding individual students and student groups.”
Bradizza has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and applied math from the University of Toronto, his master’s degree in political science from Boston College, and his Ph.D. in politics from the University of Dallas.
His main area of research is American political thought, particularly in the principles of the American founding and Progressive Era departures from those principles. He also conducts research in political philosophy.