Cordner Named Academic Fellow by Foundation
As an FDD fellow, Cordner will participate in a 10-day program in Israel from May 27 to June 7. The program includes an intensive series of lectures by academics, diplomats and military officials from India, Israel, Jordan, Turkey and the United States, as well as field trips to military, police and immigration facilities throughout Israel. He will be joined by approximately 50 other professors from across the U.S. who teach about terrorism.
Cordner hopes to gain information and course material from the program that he can apply in several new homeland security courses currently being developed at EKU, as well as greater insight about terrorism in Israel and the Middle East.
“EKU has long been at the forefront of higher education in justice and safety,” he said. “And we are now a leader in research, training, and technical assistance related to homeland security through our Justice and Safety Center and such programs as the Rural Domestic Preparedness Training Center and the National Incident Management System Support Center.
“I think it is important that we also stake out our territory in homeland security research and higher education. Hopefully my participation in this academic fellowship will help demonstrate our commitment to this important new field as well as help me enhance some specific new courses.”
Two of the courses Cordner will teach in EKU’s new Homeland Security program are “Critical Problem Analysis” and “Prevention and Problem Solving.”
“Both courses will address a wide range of hazards, from hurricanes to crime to terrorism,” Cordner said. “The academic fellowship will help me immensely with the parts of those courses that will focus on analyzing and preventing terrorism.”
Cordner, whose research interests also include community policing, police administration and homeland security, served as dean of EKU’s College of Justice & Safety from 1997 to 2003. “Research and teaching about terrorism are fairly new,” Cordner said.
“Actually, they seem newer to us than they really are, as other countries have had more experience with terrorism than we have. So part of the post-9/11 situation involves gaining a greater appreciation for a worldwide phenomenon and problem that most Americans largely ignored until recently.”
After beginning his career in law enforcement as an officer with the Ocean City (Md.) Police Department, Cordner obtained a Ph.D. in social science from Michigan State University. He taught at Washington State University and the University of Baltimore before returning to law enforcement as chief of police at St. Michaels Police Department inMaryland in 1984, where he stayed for three years before joining the EKU faculty.
FDD is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., that seeks to educate Americans about the terrorist threat to democracies worldwide. It was founded shortly after 9/11 by a group of philanthropists and policymakers to engage in the worldwide war of ideas and to support the defense of democratic societies under assault by terrorism. Its board of directors includes Steve Forbes, president and CEO of Forbes Inc.; Jeane Kirkpatrick, former ambassador to the United Nations; and Jack Kemp, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
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