Experts Guide

Farhadi is an expert on violent extremism, religion and conflict, peacebuilding, geopolitics and geoeconomics, with a particular emphasis on the Great Power Competition in the "Silk Road" region of Central and South Asia.

Mahmoudian’s research focuses on the Middle East, specifically Iran’s regional policy and the role of non-state actors in the region. He can also discuss Russia’s foreign policy, with a focus on Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.

Oakley is a former U. S. Army field artillery officer and an expert in intelligence, including CIA/Department of Defense relations; U.S. foreign policy; civilian-military and civilian-intelligence relations and

irregular warfare.

McKenzie 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. He is the former Commander, United States Central Command. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, upon graduation from The Citadel in 1979, McKenzie was commissioned into the United States Marine Corps and trained as an infantry officer.

Alexopoulos is an expert in Russian and Soviet politics and history, U.S.-Russian relations, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and authoritarianism and political violence in Europe.

Cardoso is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel with expertise in aerospace and aviation science. He can comment on topics related to national security, military, the defense industry, special operations and combat aviation.

Burke is an expert on US history and politics since 1945. He can discuss the Cold War, post-Cold War order, U.S. relations with Cuba and America’s evolving role in international security. Other topics include NATO past and present and its modern role in conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, the Monroe Doctrine and the Platt Amendment and how those doctrines resonate in 21st-century debates over U.S.–Latin America relations, America’s 20th-century wars and how lessons from the Vietnam War and Gulf conflicts inform U.S. strategy today, analysis of America’s military presence and economic reach across the world, and global economic and ecological change, including how fossil fuels, industrialization and resource competition have reshaped the global order and influenced U.S. foreign policy.

Sloan's research interests include inequalities in emotional experiences and expressions within organizations and the social shaping of emotion, with a particular emphasis on public fear concerning the threat of terrorism and associated policy preferences. She has also studied the emotional experiences and roles of social identity and social networks in women’s involvement in terrorist organizations in the Middle East.

Milani is a leading expert on Iranian politics, U.S.-Middle East relations and regional security, with decades of academic and policy experience.

Borum is director of Intelligence and National Security Studies at USF and a past consultant for the U.S. Secret Service. His research and expertise focuses on terrorism, intelligence concepts, intelligence analysis, information behavior, strategy and decision-making, interrogation and criminal psychology.

Burrell is an expert on U.S. history, military science and international relations. He can discuss how the decades-long conflict in Venezuela recently came to the forefront of international attention following the U.S. military extraction of dictator Nicolas Maduro and the complexities of his drug indictment in New York.

Roach is an expert in global governance, critical international theory and global ethics and warfare. He can discuss aspects of the current U.S. administration's interest in acquiring Greenland.

Schnaufer is an expert on NATO, military studies, foreign policy and hybrid warfare. He has served in both line and airborne infantry units. He published a book chapter in “The Challenge to NATO: Global Security and the Atlantic Alliance” titled, NATO Burden Sharing in the Age of Hybrid Warfare.

Pieri studies extremism -- both domestic and international, including jihadist movements. He can discuss far right activity in the U.S., antisemitism. He is the author of four books, and numerous peer-reviewed articles which focus on the relationships between religion, politics and violence.