By Lisa Y. Garibay
UTEP News Service
Recent student successes and a new master’s program poised to start in February have the faculty in UTEP’s Intelligence and National Security Studies (INSS) program energized to start the spring semester.
In May 2013, the program hosted the 9th annual International Association For Intelligence Education (IAFIE) Conference, giving INSS graduate students the opportunity to present research to more than 150 attendees from a dozen different countries, many representing intelligence education, trainers, independent consultants and other areas of the intelligence sector. Those students went on to have their papers published in the Journal of Strategic Security, giving them a big professional boost.
Ambassador Robert Hutchings, dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, delivers a keynote address at the annual IAFIE Conference held at UTEP last May. Photo by Larry Valero.
“It really highlights the outstanding research work our INSS graduate students are doing in the field,” said Larry A. Valero, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the INSS program. “Gary Adkins, Esther Solis Al-Tabaa, America Guevara, Eric Gutierrez, Stacy Langston and Barry Peterson represent the INSS program extremely well and help confirm UTEP’s position as a national leader in intelligence education.”
Student success stories such as employment offers from a government agency stemming from capstone coursework or publishing in journals are proof cross-disciplinary work pays off.
“We might be an off-shoot of history and political science, but we’re really multidisciplinary,” Valero said, clarifying the INSS program involves aspects from many fields, including psychology, sociology, communication studies and international relations.
Some enter the INSS program immediately after obtaining their bachelor’s degrees, whereas many others are more established professionals with years of employment under their belts or are returning to school after military or government service. Now, a new addition to the INSS roster is poised to attract students from an even broader variety of backgrounds.
In February, the INSS program will launch its new online Master of Defense and Strategic Studies (DSS) degree. This specialized graduate degree has been in development for more than two years and will begin with two introductory courses: U.S. National Security, taught by Alexandra Luce, Ph.D., from the Justice Institute of British Columbia, and Strategic Theory and Modern Warfare, taught by Brett Morris, Ph.D., from the University of Idaho. Every 10 weeks, two new courses will begin. Valero hopes as the program evolves, several different starting points will be available throughout the year for students to select.
“It will help many advance or begin their careers in a host of defense and security related enterprises,” Valero said. “The provost has been extremely supportive with distance learning funding for conversions of courses and new online programs. College of Liberal Arts Dean Patricia Witherspoon has given us her blessing developing this program and has promoted it as well.”
Since the INSS program began, its faculty and staff learned about military and other federal government employees who don’t reside in the El Paso area and need a flexible, online graduate degree to help further their careers.
The online graduate program complements the INSS program’s in-residence master’s degree plan, yet has its own particular focus beyond intelligence. The curriculum is designed to support someone dealing with defense and strategic issues including budgeting, operational and strategic planning, diplomacy, or civilian/military relations in a variety of staff functions throughout the government, whether in the military or in the national security arena.
“I can see, for example, Congressional staffers finding this very useful as they’re preparing briefs and memoranda for their representatives, senators and constituents,” Valero said. “But I think it goes beyond just government service as well. I think the degree is also useful potentially for journalists looking for the bona fide for foreign and defense matters. It can also apply to defense contractors who may already have a degree in engineering, but really need to understand security threats more broadly as they represent their company in decision-making processes regarding future technologies or new possibilities that might face their companies like cyber issues, which is so important right now. This degree gives them a strong background.”
DSS master’s candidates will receive regional expertise via an “around-the-world” tour of military and strategic issues facing the United States thanks to the geographic specialties of the program’s faculty, who are located all over North America and were specifically recruited due to their expertise and research. Overall, the curriculum is a rich, multidisciplinary effort of historians, political scientists, geographers and area specialists.
Alexandra Luce of the Justice Institute of British Columbia will teach the program’s U.S. National Security course.
“Defining a nation’s vital and enduring interests, identifying ways to achieve and defend them, and understanding the trade-offs involved in doing so are all important parts of these areas which the DSS program considers,” she said.
Luce worked hard to design a course that would encourage both critical and creative thinking.
“It will allow students to explore a national security problem that really interests them and to present their findings in the way they find most meaningful,” she said. Luce recently committed to joining the UTEP faculty as an assistant professor of security studies with the INSS program starting in fall 2014.
Air Force Academy Director of International Programs Lt. Col. J.P. Peltier is the other instructor who will contribute expertise in African security and more than 18 years of experience as an intelligence officer. The degree plan wraps up with a final course in future warfare taught by UTEP’s own Damien Van Puyvelde, Ph.D.
The program is designed for the working professional and the courses are intensified into eight-week periods. It’s possible to finish in just one year, but many who are working full-time may elect to enroll on a part-time basis.
“This will probably make it very attractive – how quickly students would have the opportunity to gain expertise and complete this degree,” Valero said.
In surveying other similar programs around the country, Valero and his colleagues discovered this type of degree is very rare in civilian universities. The only other program like it is an in-residence program offered through Missouri State University. Other similar graduate programs are broader and don’t have the same focus on defense and strategic issues as UTEP’s.
“This is a true fusion between a professional graduate degree and a very traditional academic graduate degree,” Valero said. “It’s the best of both worlds and fills a need that’s been largely absent in the United States.”
Given UTEP’s location on the border and so near to a major military installation, it has long been a leader in defense and security-oriented education. Valero also credits the University’s administration for continuing to prove its commitment to innovation via the implementation of this new master’s degree, stating that a program like this would only fly at a place as military-friendly and growth-oriented as UTEP.
“We definitely see opportunities here to help our students get to where they want to be, like helping a lower-level staffer move into a more senior position,” Valero said. “I think that’s what the future of this degree will mean for many, many people. There’s a reason why we’re at the top of Washington Monthly’s social mobility rankings. It’s programs like this that help provide that mobility.”