Penn State Department of Political Science: Faculty Bios

Peter Forster, Affiliate Instructor
	Contact Information: 115 Mitchell University Park, PA 16802-6200 Office phone: 863-8304 pkf1@psu.edu Office Hours: Please click here for this semester's office hours.

Brief Biography
Peter Forster is affiliate faculty in the Department of Political Science and represents the department and the Center for Network Centric Cognition and Data Fusion (NC2IF) on NATO's Consortium for Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes, part of the Partnership for Peace initiative. Although he has participated in a number of the Consortium's activities, he is most active in the Counter-terrorism Working Group. This group's agenda dovetails with his research interest in national security, homeland security, and civil-military relations. He earned a certificate in National Security Studies from Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel in 1989 and received his Ph.D. in International Relations from Penn State in 1997. In addition to national security, he is interested in US Foreign Policy, Terrorism studies, and international relations of the Middle East. In addition to a number of articles, Dr. Forster is the co-author of The U.S., NATO and Military Burden Shari! ng (2005) which explores the evolution of burden sharing beyond NATO's traditional area of operation, co-editor on Making Things Better: Improving Prevention, Mitigation and Resilience of Critical Infrastructures (2009),with a colleague at the Swiss Federal Ministry for Critical Infrastructure, and a contributor of an article on burden sharing in Afghanistan in The George W. Bush Defense Program: Policy, Strategy and War, (pending, Potomac Publishers Jan. 2010) Dr. Forster is currently the Managing Director, International Initiative for Outreach. He has used his background in history and international relations to develop new international initiatives at Penn State that include the first distance learning program to be established in Russia outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow. He also has consulted on the development of national distance education programs in Central Asia and presented papers and written on distance education including a published article on education’s role in defense reform.

Brief Biography

Peter Forster is affiliate faculty in the Department of Political Science and represents the department and the Center for Network Centric Cognition and Data Fusion (NC2IF) on NATO's Consortium for Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes, part of the Partnership for Peace initiative. Although he has participated in a number of the Consortium's activities, he is most active in the Counter-terrorism Working Group. This group's agenda dovetails with his research interest in national security, homeland security, and civil-military relations. He earned a certificate in National Security Studies from Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel in 1989 and received his Ph.D. in International Relations from Penn State in 1997. In addition to national security, he is interested in US Foreign Policy, Terrorism studies, and international relations of the Middle East. In addition to a number of articles, Dr. Forster is the co-author of The U.S., NATO and Military Burden Shari! ng (2005) which explores the evolution of burden sharing beyond NATO's traditional area of operation, co-editor on Making Things Better: Improving Prevention, Mitigation and Resilience of Critical Infrastructures (2009),with a colleague at the Swiss Federal Ministry for Critical Infrastructure, and a contributor of an article on burden sharing in Afghanistan in The George W. Bush Defense Program: Policy, Strategy and War, (pending, Potomac Publishers Jan. 2010)

Dr. Forster is currently the Managing Director, International Initiative for Outreach. He has used his background in history and international relations to develop new international initiatives at Penn State that include the first distance learning program to be established in Russia outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow. He also has consulted on the development of national distance education programs in Central Asia and presented papers and written on distance education including a published article on education’s role in defense reform.