Douglas W. Blum is Professor of Political Science at Providence College, and Adjunct Professor of International Studies at the Thomas J. Watson, Jr., Institute of International Studies at Brown University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 1991. His general research interests include cultural globalization, the politics of energy development in the Caspian Sea, and the international relations of post-Soviet Central Asia. Much of his recent work has focused on the Caspian region, and he has published and spoken on a number of related themes including Russian and American policy, energy geopolitics, and environmental security in the Caspian basin. He is currently working on a monograph entitled "Globalization, State-Society Relations, and the Construction of National Identity in Post-Soviet Space".