The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-partisan policy institute headquartered in Washington, D.C., named Dr. Bradley C.S. Watson, Philip M. McKenna Professor of American and Western Political Thought at Saint Vincent College's Alex G. McKenna School of Business, Economics, and Government, an Academic Fellow for 2005.  Dr. Watson will travel to Israel at the end of May for an intensive course in terrorism studies and, in particular, how democracies can defeat the worldwide terrorist threat.

“Terrorism is the greatest threat today to the world’s democracies, including the United States and our allies around the globe,” said Clifford May, President of FDD.  “To win the war against terrorism, we must win the war of ideas by promoting democracy and defeating the totalitarian ideologies that drive and justify terrorism.” 

The FDD Academic Fellows program provides a 10-day learning experience to U.S.-based teaching and research professionals to provide them with cutting edge information about defeating terrorist groups.  The 2005 program, which will be conducted at Tel Aviv University from May 29 to June 8, includes lectures by academics, military and intelligence officials, as well as diplomats from Israel, Jordan, India, Turkey and the United States. It also includes “hands on” experience through visits to police, customs and immigration facilities, military bases and border zones to learn the practical side of deterring and defeating terrorists.

Dr. Watson, a professor of political science at Saint Vincent, said, “I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to listen and participate in the exchanges and interactions which we will all have in Israel.  They will be useful for integrating questions having to do with terrorism and civilization into my courses and for other academic activities I am pursuing, including my next book, a collection entitled The West at War.”