Robert BRATHWAITE
Associate Dean for Research
Associate Professor
James Madison College
Michigan State University
Robert Brathwaite is the associate dean for research and an associate professor at James Madison College with a specialization in international relations. Professor Brathwaite is also the faculty director of the James Madison College Human Rights Data Science Lab. He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in political science from the University of Notre Dame.
Professor Brathwaite’s teaching and research interests include topics associated with international security, strategic competition with China, terrorism, cyberwarfare, religious violence and the conduct of civil wars. He was awarded a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars from August 2021 – Augst 2022. During his fellowship, he worked at the Department of Defense in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy on China-related issues and is currently a consultant for the Department of Defense, Office for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs.
He has taught courses that cover the following topics: international relations, international security, cyberwarfare, U.S. Foreign Policy, technology and politics, intra-state violence, and research methods. In his spare time, Professor Brathwaite enjoys the outdoors and is an avid snowboarder.
ELYES GHANMI
Director
TITEO
Elyès Ghanmi is currently Director of the Tunisian Institute for the Training of Elected Officials (TITEO) in Tunis, a non-partisan NGO dedicated to the capacity-building of parliamentarians and local elected officials in Tunisia, and funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Elyès Ghanmi holds a Master Degree in Law and in Political Science at the Institut d’études politiques de Toulouse. His doctoral thesis at the Université libre de Bruxelles focused on the Tunisia-EU relationships. He served as Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the European Parliament following the Arab Spring. He was also administrator at the Foreign Affairs Committee and research analyst at the Policy Department of the European Parliament.
Lecturer for the ULB-MSU summer school since 2007, he teaches a course on the European Union and its security issues. He also taught a course on the history of the European construction and European policies at the University of Pittsburgh where he was a Fulbright-Schuman scholar at the European Union Centre of Excellence. He also taught a course on Development Theories at James Madison College (MSU) in Fall 2010 and a course in 2011 on Diplomacy under the Visiting International Professional Program (VIPP).
In 1998 he passed his Ph.D. qualifying exams and the following year was hired as Director of Admissions at James Madison College of Michigan State University. In this capacity, Mr. Judge also served as an academic advisor and instructor. In 2006 Mr. Judge was named Director of Academic Affairs for James Madison College and promoted to Assistant Dean in 2010, a capacity in which he currently serves.
MATT ZIERLER
Associate Professor
James Madison College
Michigan State University
Professor Zierler’s research and teaching interests are in foreign policy, international security, international relations theory, international law, and international cooperation. His dissertation, “Failing to Commit: The Politics of Treaty Nonratification,” examined the numerous cases throughout U.S. history when the United States has signed a treaty only to never ratify it. With Professor Mohammed Ayoob, he published “The Unipolar Concert: North-South Divide Trumps Transatlantic Differences” in the World Policy Journal. With Michael Schechter, he has published “Multilateralism: Does it Still Matter?” in the Information Memorandum published by the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS). He also has co-authored an article in the Journal of European Integration titled “Barriers to Socialization: Turkey and Regional International Organizations.” He spent the spring 2014 semester and March 2015 and 2016 as a visiting professor at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan; he also regularly leads the International Relations in Brussels study abroad program.