Mission Statement
Old Dominion University
The Mission of Old Dominion University is as follows:
"Old Dominion University promotes the advancement of knowledge and the pursuit of truth locally, nationally, and internationally. It develops in students a respect for the dignity and worth of the individual, a capacity for critical reasoning and a genuine desire for learning. It fosters the extension of the boundaries of knowledge through research and scholarship and is committed to the preservation and dissemination of a rich cultural heritage. Old Dominion University is old enough to value tradition yet young enough to facilitate change. In a spirit of creative experimentation, innovation, and technology, the University is ready to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century."
The Mission Support section of the mission statement describes in detail the principles and practices that underlie the University's undergraduate and graduate teaching, research, and service missions: a sound general education program; critical thinking; diversity; academic freedom; serving the needs of the local, national, and international communities, including military members and their families; and collaborating with government, industry, and alumni. Finally, the Major Goals of the University are described under the following headings: Students; Faculty; Academic Programs; Teaching; Research, Scholarship and Creativity; Distance Learning; Lifelong Learning; Community Service; Student Life; Alumni; and Quality.
A complete statement of the mission and major goals may be found in the Old Dominion University Undergraduate Catalog, 2008-2009 (pp. 2-4) and available at the following web site: www.collegesource.org/cat209/120257.pdf
Summary of Accomplishments
Teaching
Dr. Steve Yetiv has been recognized in several quarters for his teaching performance over the past 17 years. He won the 2007 Robert Stern Award for Excellence in Teaching at Old Dominion University's College of Arts and Letters. This award reflects a long tradition of commitment to teaching. As a post-doctoral teaching fellow at Harvard University, he won two teaching awards (1991 and 1992), and later received the 1999 Scholar Award from the Virginia Social Science Council (two scholars statewide win each year for research and teaching).
Professor Yetiv tries to deliver knowledge to students for the sake of knowledge, but he also aims to help students improve their analytical skills through hypothesis-building and testing, while pushing them hard to think about real-world problems. Students seem to appreciate this approach. As one noted, "I was very happy that current events were analyzed which made the class very relevant." His discussions were "very good at making me think about the applications of theories…to real-world situations past and present."
Dr. Yetiv stresses the importance of non-ideological teaching. He refuses to interject his own opinions. He pushes students to make their own judgments based on the evidence presented in lectures and in various readings. As one student put it, reflecting broader opinion, "What I like most about Dr. Yetiv is that he was not one-sided with issues. He could explain all sides without being biased."
This approach follows from his own research. As Patrick James, the former vice president of the International Studies Association and a professor at the University of Southern California, noted in a review of Dr. Yetiv's book, The Absence of Grand Strategy: Professor Yetiv's book "makes an original contribution and is a welcome relief from much of the polemical writing on the subject of American foreign policy. The scholarship is excellent. It will be essential reading for those in securities studies and international relations."
Dr. Yetiv brings his own real-world experience to teaching. This includes drawing on his own research, government consulting, international travel to more than twenty countries, and media contributions. He also draws on his own information-gathering interviews and contacts with key decision makers at the mid- and highest levels of the government in the United States and other countries. As one student noted, "What impressed me was that he has interviewed key people in the H.W. Bush administration and he then passed on information to me that I would probably not have come across for a long time."
Dr. Yetiv believes that it is important to be a role model. Graduate students sometimes ask him if they can compete with others from far better known schools. He tells them that, according to studies, they can do so if they publish two articles in refereed journals. Professor Yetiv devotes considerable time to advancing the careers of his undergraduate and graduate students as a co-author. Within the past several years, he has taken the lead in the College of Arts and Letters in co-authoring 10 journal articles and book chapters with ODU students. This process has increased their expertise and confidence, and their connection to the broader local and national academic community. It has also helped them obtain good jobs in academia, the private sector and in government.
He is in a good position to carry this message to undergraduate and graduate students because he attended public universities until he entered Harvard for post-doctoral work, and he used publication as a launching pad for his career. His effort to be a mentor has met with great success. As one student asserted, "This class is truly 360 degrees of Leadership principles in action. A big thanks to Dr. Yetiv for his Excellence in Delivery and Mastery of the Subject!"
Students with whom he has co-authored one or more articles in major refereed journals are well-situated professionally: Dr. Tom Lansford, associate professor and associate dean, Southern Mississippi University; Dr. Chunlong Lu, associate professor at Remnin University (China); and Dr. Anouar Boukhars, visiting assistant professor, Wilberforce University. In addition, all of Dr. Yetiv's dissertation students have found good jobs in and out of academia. Eric Miller is now a senior U.S. Department of Defense analyst; Allison Greene (Department of Defense analyst); Jim Radford (assistant professor and Director of the International Studies minor, Radford University); Azza Al-Sharabassy (assistant professor, Alexandria Maritime University, Egypt); and Nurretin Altundeger (producer, Turkish International Television).
Dr. Yetiv began to mentor graduate students before coming to Old Dominion, but ODU students are reaping the benefits. Frederic Ruiz-Ramon whom he mentored as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University, is now director and chief, International Programs, U.S. Department of Defense, Chemical Biological Defense. Coming full circle, Dr. Ruiz-Ramon recently hired Dr. Yetiv's student, Elena Watson. She graduated with a B.A. in political science from ODU in 2007 and will now work on national defense issues, launching her burgeoning career in international relations. Many of Professor Yetiv's undergraduate students have found jobs in the foreign service here and abroad, as well as the FBI, CIA, and consulting firms such as SAIC, non-governmental organizations, business, and in public service, such as Dan Drummond who is now a councilman in Virginia.
Discovery
Dr. Yetiv's research focuses on three areas related to national and international security: global energy and American foreign policy; U.S. decision making and foreign policy in the Middle East; and the link between global interdependence and national security (in particular that of the United States).
In the words of his department chair, Dr. Jie Chen, "Dr. Yetiv's long list of publications accomplished within a span of less than 20 years would be considered an extraordinarily prolific record in the most reputable political science programs in the United States; the presses and journals where he publishes represent the highest standards of the field, and are the envy of students of political and international studies. For example, two of his books received the prestigious Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Book."
It is worthwhile describing four of his works. America and the Persian Gulf: The Third Party Dimension in World Politics examines the impact of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq war and the 1990-91 Persian Gulf crisis on the U.S. strategic position in the Middle East. It develops a theoretical and methodological framework for understanding how conflicts impact actors other than the direct antagonists (the two initial actors in a conflict), a framework with applicability beyond the Middle East. Rather than assuming conventionally that the key issue in understanding conflict is how third parties affect conflict, the framework turns the tables and examines how conflict affects third parties. Empirically and theoretically, it shows that using this framework illuminates much better the real costs and benefits of foreign policy actions, because it takes into consideration their broader and longer term effects on third parties.
In another book, Explaining Foreign Policy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), Dr. Yetiv develops an integrated approach that uses multiple models to explain the foreign policy behavior of states that we witness each day. These models are drawn from multiple disciplines (groupthink from sociology; the cognitive model from psychology; analogical thinking from history and cognitive studies; rational action from various disciplines, including economics; and bureaucratic politics from political science and business).
The integrated approach demonstrates how, by using these multiple models, we can explain foreign policy and international action much better than by relying on the predominant rational actor model. The book is path-breaking in demonstrating how the models can be tested; how they can be integrated to explain foreign policy actions; and how they can explain strategic interaction between two actors rather than illuminating how one actor will make decisions, independent of the other's expected behavior. Scholars have found this book useful for these reasons and because it presents a new and more rigorous way to explain the foreign policy actions that we observe. As another reviewer asserted, "Whether or not Explaining Foreign Policy ultimately takes its place beside Essence of Decision as a seminal work in this field [a leading book in the discipline for more than 35 years], the book serves the same function in challenging analysts to question conventional models and accommodate complexity in the scholarly study of foreign policy."
Another reason that scholars have found this book useful is that it shows how political scientists might effectively bridge the gap between empirical and theoretical approaches to the subject. As another book reviewer asserted, "In the discipline of political science, most books are theoretically rich but empirically poor, or visa versa. Rarely does one find a book that both thoroughly presents a theoretical framework and then actually tests that framework against reality by the rigorous use of history. Steve Yetiv...has done a remarkably good job of balancing both elements in a new study of U.S. decision-making in the first Persian Gulf War (1990-91). . . . In sum, it is difficult to do justice to this work in the short space provided here."
Long before oil dependence and security became pressing public issues, Steve Yetiv published Crude Awakenings (Cornell University Press, 2004). The book underscores how critical it is to decrease oil dependence, but it finds that this is not chiefly due to the problem of physical oil disruptions. In tracking seven variables, his study illuminates how three decades of major changes in the Middle East, in world politics and in the global energy sector actually decreased political and military threats to global oil supplies from 1975 to 2003. In this sense, the book, which involves significant primary research, including work at the library of OPEC headquarters in Vienna and data analysis on global energy, challenges conventional wisdom on the state of global oil security. The book also sketches how such threats do remain serious and how a variety of other factors should hasten our move toward decreased oil dependence.
In a book review, a leading scholar of international security, Bruce Kuniholm of Duke University, stated that "Yetiv's discussion is thorough, grounded in a sound understanding of each development's history and versed in the nuances that are required to appreciate its complexities. . . . His book is one of the best that I have read in recent years on oil security." Other experts also highly commended this book: "This is an excellent book that goes against the grain of much of today's thinking. It is a rare example of superb integration of domestic politics, geopolitics, international politics and market economics." The Wall Street Journal called the book "smart, practical and convincing." Scholars have found this book useful in that it represents the most involved analysis to date of political-security threats to global oil supplies, and offers a conceptual framework for analyzing these threats.
Dr. Yetiv's recent book, a decade-long project, is The Absence of Grand Strategy: The United States and Persian Gulf (1972-2005). It is easy to assume that the most powerful nations pursue and employ consistent, cohesive, and decisive policies in trying to promote their interests in regions of the world. In fact, international relations theory emphasizes two such grand strategies that great powers may pursue: balance of power policy or hegemonic domination. But Dr. Yetiv shows that such assumptions about how great powers behave are misleading and, in this respect, he challenges a cottage industry of conventional thought.
Analyzing the evolution of the United States' foreign policy in the Persian Gulf from 1972 to 2005, Yetiv explores American strategies toward the Gulf region. Ten cases-from the policies of the Nixon administration to George W. Bush's war in Iraq-reveal shifting, improvised, and reactive policies that were responses to unanticipated and unpredictable events and threats. In fact, the distinguishing feature of the U.S. experience in the Gulf has been the absence of grand strategy.
Dr. Yetiv introduces the concept of "reactive engagement" as an alternative approach to understanding great power behavior. He finds that great powers are far more likely to react to events than to engage according to the theories of grand strategy that scholars and others sometimes ascribe to them. By operationalizing key concepts, by drawing on military and economic data of balance of power, by utilizing archival research and testing novel hypotheses, the book represents cutting edge rigor for its genre.
Johns Hopkins University Press has submitted the book for Pulitzer Prize consideration (nonfiction book category, pending) and other national awards, and singled it out from its 2008 publications for a special promotion drive, which included giving out free copies to professors.
In a field where 90 percent of the scholars are rarely cited at all, Professor Yetiv has been cited, according to Google Scholar, 210 times. And it is fair to note that his most major works have been published in the past few years and are yet to be digested by the literature in the area of American foreign policy, theory of foreign policy, security and Middle East studies.
Integration of Knowledge
Dr. Yetiv consciously integrates knowledge into his teaching approach. He learns from teaching, which benefits his research, and he uses his research to push the frontiers of teaching. This is evident in several ways.
Dr. Yetiv can be fairly described as a curricular pioneer. In 1996, he helped develop the heavily revised curricula for the M.A. and Ph.D. program in international studies. He became the director of one of five tracks in the program on Global Interdependence, recognizing that students needed an understanding of this critical phenomenon. In 1998, he spearheaded the development of the Middle East minor at Old Dominion, providing undergraduate students with an opportunity to learn about this region.
Professor Yetiv tries to bring his research into the classroom to clarify concepts, methodology and empirical data. Students note: "Dr. Yetiv was definitely an expert in his field and I appreciated his scholarly background and accomplishments"; "I love the way he conducts the course. It's just like being in an Ivy League classroom. Critical thinking skills are developed in this class."
Steve Yetiv is dedicated to improving the ability of students to research and write good papers. On every syllabus, he includes two single-spaced pages on how to do so. He tells students on the first day that these two pages draw on all of his failures and successes in research--on all of the lessons that he has learned. And that he wants them to learn from his mistakes-a much less time-consuming process than wasting energy on their own errors.
Dr. Yetiv not only aims to make his research salient to the education of ODU students, but also to students in the Commonwealth and around the world. In fact, one of his books, Explaining Foreign Policy, is a required text in undergraduate and graduate programs at more than 35 universities. They include Yale, Cornell, Georgetown, UCLA, Ohio State, Southern California, Denver, Colorado, American, University of Helsinki, and Tidewater Community College. Parts of this book are used even more widely. The book is used to teach students U.S. foreign policy, but its originality and primary use lies in presenting, developing, and testing multiple theories of decision-making for understanding foreign policy actions in an "integrated approach" that has not been done heretofore.
In this sense, Dr. Yetiv's integration of knowledge benefits not only ODU students, but is integrated in a structural way in the discipline. This is also the case because his work is discussed in key textbooks of international relations. For instance, one prominent text book, The Theory and Practice in International Relations (Oxford University Press, 2007), devotes more than three pages to Explaining Foreign Policy. To put this in perspective, scholars whose academic work is included in textbooks are usually referred to in a few sentences.
Service
Steve Yetiv has drawn on his expertise to make valued contributions in service at the institutional, community and professional level. At the university level, in addition to his work on the curriculum, he served, while still untenured, as acting director of the Bachelor of International Studies Program (1994-95) and as the associate director of the Graduate Program in International Studies (1996-2000).
Professor Yetiv also serves on the Promotion and Tenure Committee of the College of Arts and Letters and represented the college on the University Promotion and Tenure Committee (2006-07), and on many other committees. He has also served as an academic advisor for the student scholarly and refereed journal, International Topics; and has successfully supervised five Ph.D. dissertations; served on more than 15 other Ph.D. and M.A. thesis committees; and conducted more than 30 independent research studies for undergraduate and graduate students. Through his mentorship, many students, both graduate and undergraduate, have acquired hands-on research skills and established solid credentials for their future professional and academic careers.
Believing that scholars should contribute to the communities in which they live, Dr. Yetiv has also engaged in significant outreach. In the community, he has published many editorials in The Virginian-Pilot in the last 15 years; and given numerous talks and interviews in a number of local venues: the Rotary Club; Naro Theatre, U.S. Joint Forces Command, Central Business District, World Affairs Council, WHRO, Model United Nations, Tidewater Community College, Norfolk State University, and Virginia Wesleyan College. He has appeared on local television dozens of times.
At the professional level, Dr. Yetiv is an external reviewer for major book and journal publishers, and has served on various panels at conferences, including more recently the Joint Forces Command conference on global interdependence and U.S. defense transformation (summer 2007), and the Turkish conference on Terrorism and Democracy (summer 2007).
Dr. Yetiv is firmly wedded to the notion that academics can play an important role in the public sphere, and he has made atypical contributions in this regard. In 1996, he received the Secretary's Open Forum Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. State Department for his "contributions to national and international affairs." The award was presented at the U.S. State Department, and has been given to thinkers including the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. It recognized Dr. Yetiv's tireless efforts to turn his research into policy and public outreach for improving U.S. and international security.
Dr. Yetiv has also been a consultant to the U.S. Departments of State and Defense and to the General Accounting Office. He has consulted on issues ranging from US security in the Gulf, to the impact of globalization on terrorism, to the effects of American oil dependence.
He gives generously of his time to address challenging questions and to educate the media with whom he enjoys working. Dr. Yetiv has written more than 200 editorials. Most of them have been local, but some of them have appeared in national papers, including USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Houston Chronicle, International Herald Tribune, Newsday, San Diego Union-Tribune, Boston Globe, Atlanta Constitution, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Numerous op-eds have been published in the Christian Science Monitor.
Many of these op-eds have been carried on syndicates to scores of papers in the United States and around the world, including the largest English dailies in China, Taiwan, India, and Mexico; and to major Internet sites, including Google, Yahoo, ABCNews.com, CBSNews.com, MSNBCNews.com, and Salon. In addition, Professor Yetiv has made contributions on national television and radio, including CNN, CNBC, CSPAN, National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," and Voice of America.
Dr. Yetiv helped CNN develop two major documentaries on the United States and the Middle East. One of them, "Back to Baghdad" (Feb. 25, 1996), won an Edward R. Murrow Overseas Press Club Award. He had the honor of being invited for a one-hour "Close Up Foundation" program on the U.S. role in the Middle East (debating U.S. Ambassador Edward Peck) on CSPAN (aired Oct. 4, 5 and 7, 1995). Dr. Yetiv is also interviewed by the print media. This includes the Associated Press, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, United Press International, and various local, national and global papers and Internet sites.
In sum, Dr. Yetiv has made exemplary contributions to the world, the nation, the state, and to his local community, as well as to his fellow scholars in international relations. Over the years, he has helped us all to understand and respond to the increasing complexity of the world in which we live.
Letters of Support (Excerpted)
"In effect, Dr. Yetiv extends the classroom to the broader regional, national, and global public. He is truly a rare public intellectual who tries to educate citizens on the pressing issues of the day, in a balanced manner. He has appeared in numerous major US and global newspaper, radio, and television outlets, and is frequently quoted as an authority on security and energy issues."
--John R. Broderick, Acting President, Old Dominion University
"Steve Yetiv is one of our best teachers and he has won the hearts of students both at the undergraduate and graduate levels... He has channeled the energies of his students most constructively co-authoring nine articles and book chapters with them. Most recently, his dedication to teaching won him the 2007 Stern Award for Teaching Excellence in the College of Arts and Letters but he also has a history of being recognized for his superior teaching having won two teaching awards at Harvard University in the 1990s. He is an internationally recognized scholar. He won the Scholar Award of the Virginia Social Science Association in 1999, an award given annually to recognize a prominent teacher-scholar. He has published three excellent books in major university presses in the last four years alone. These books have won praise from reviewers and supplement half a dozen articles he published in key journals during the same period…The instructional impact of excellent university professors extends far beyond the classroom. Yetiv's…wider educational impact has been truly extraordinary. He is frequently interviewed on national radio and TV. He has written many news commentaries and is in great demand as a consultant. The US State Department has awarded him The Secretary's Open Forum Distinguished Public Service Award."
--Chandra R. de Silva, Dean, College of Arts and Letters, Old Dominion University
"As his colleague and Chair, I have worked with Dr. Yetiv for almost eleven years. He has always impressed me as one of the best teachers and the most productive scholars on this campus…Students also commend Dr. Yetiv on his brilliant teaching techniques and on the depth and breadth of his knowledge of various subjects...Both students' quantitative and qualitative valuations of Dr. Yetiv's teaching have been overwhelmingly positive…at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Overall, his quantitative evaluations have always scored significantly higher than the department, college and university averages… Through his mentorship, many students, both graduate and undergraduate, have acquired both hands-on research skills and established solid credentials for their future careers. Due to his brilliant teaching, Dr. Yetiv won the Robert Stern Award for Excellence in Teaching Award of the College of Arts and Letters. Dr. Yetiv has …excelled in the quality of his research output. For instance, he has published two award winning books, both of which received the prestigious Choice Awards for Outstanding Academic Book...the kinds of outlets in which he published his works represent the highest standards of the field, and are envies of the students of political and international studies… Dr. Yetiv has established himself as one of the most reputable authorities in the area of International Studies… All in all, I strongly believe that Dr. Yetiv has set the highest standards of teaching and research on this campus."
--Jie Chen, Chair, Department of Political Science and Geography, Old Dominion University
"I spent 40 years as a student at various levels in colleges throughout the world; Steve Yetiv is simply the finest professor I ever met. He is a dedicated instructor devoted to the educational process… Dr. Yetiv's approach to classroom instruction…is nothing short of inspirational. His complete and thorough knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the subject matter is obvious from the first day of class. He controls and directs interactive discussions among students to emphasize and develop scholarly points of importance with subtle emphasis... As a particularly succinct example of his phenomenal expertise in teaching, I would point to the number of students in my graduate cohort who have gone on to teach at the university level. For me, he was exactly the right dissertation chair…he ALWAYS provided quick feedback on anything I sent him and stuck with me through writer's block, language proficiency horrors, and a move that took me 300 miles away. While that might seem unremarkable, as a doctoral student in his fifties, I am grateful Dr. Yetiv exemplified the instructional notion that it is never too late."
--James H. Radford, Ph.D, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Director, International Studies Minor, Radford University
"Steve has been instrumental in my own career success since I was at Harvard's Department of Government working on my dissertation…his constructive assistance over a period of two years laid the foundations for my future success... While I worked international policy issues in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, I know that my colleagues at senior levels of the Defense and State Departments and throughout the intelligence community utilized Steve's works in developing and analyzing key U.S. foreign and defense policies… This type of impact at key decision making nodes is an achievement that many senior academics in the social sciences can only dream of. Beyond mastery of theory across disciplines, Steve…has had more influence than many senior career policymakers…Steve's career is well underway with what can only be described as a significant list of accomplishments unmatched by many of his senior academic colleagues in the discipline… Most recently, as a Research Fellow at the National War College I personally witnessed Steve's books and ideas used as parts of discussions to train our future senior military and national defense leaders. Steve continues to have a real influence in the intellectual discussions that lead to US policies impacting the world. He has great potential to further enlighten generations of students, develop new and innovative approaches to issues in the social sciences, and positively impact policymakers."
--Dr. Frédéric Ruiz-Ramón, Chief, International Programs, Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense, US Department of Defense
"I was fortunate enough to take classes with Dr.Yetiv at the undergraduate and graduate levels. As an instructor and as a mentor he contributed in a significant way to my success with his constant encouragement, advice, and enthusiasm. Dr.Yetiv's classes, more so than other instructors, were a pleasure to attend for the depth of instruction and for the challenge that he presented to each student to achieve at their highest level both in and out of class. It was that constant push to always improve, to use our recently acquired knowledge and vocabulary to express in clear terms arguments we were only beginning to grasp, that set him apart as a teacher and that, for me, challenged me to work my hardest and do my best in his classes."
--Patricia Raxter, TSI Executive Consulting, Inc.
"It was my very great pleasure and great good fortune to study under Dr. Yetiv as a PhD student at Old Dominion University. He is exceedingly well thought of by his students. He is clear in his objectives, extremely knowledgeable, and quite engaging in class. He is able to draw his students into even the most difficult terrain with lectures that are well prepared and quite interesting. He actually made international relations theory understandable. There is no finer professor than Dr. Yetiv, and Old Dominion University is right to nominate him for this award as a way of recognizing his many outstanding talents."
--Frances M. Jacobson, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Tidewater Community College
"Steve Yetiv won two awards for excellence in teaching at Harvard University…but he is also strong in research. Steve's overall output and quality is very impressive, measured against high-level competition… In brief, Steve has attained a worthy national reputation--and I am delighted to recommend him."
--Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Former Under Secretary of Defense, and Distinguished Service Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
"His record speaks for itself… It is not common to win a Choice Award, and very rare to win two awards for major works. It is also rare to publish three top-ten ranked books in four years or in any time period. All in all, Steve's name is known at the national level, and across areas of political science (rather than in one niche of the field), and that's hard to achieve…he has bona fide national status. Old Dominion is lucky to have someone of his caliber on its faculty."
--Lenore Martin, Professor Political Science, Emmanuel College, and Senior Fellow, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
"As my dissertation chair, Dr. Yetiv was not only a guiding force and inspiration academically, but his personal encouragement and dedication to my work was above and beyond expectations. He was always available for consultation when needed, and provided critical input and analysis that forced me to challenge my own standards of excellence... I'm not certain if "outstanding" does justice to describing the impact I have seen him have not just on me, but on many of my classmates. Other words that come to mind are: exceptional, sincere, brilliant, insightful, and committed. Quite honestly, I may not be a Ph.D. today if it were not for Dr. Yetiv."
--Dr. Allison Greene, Senior Policy Analyst, Sygnetics
"Yetiv is a superb candidate for the SCHEV Award. His wide-ranging scholarship is critical to understanding international relations, US foreign policy and the role of oil in the increasingly complicated world…. What is most striking about Yetiv's work is his ability to uncover and explain the connections among complex forces in today's globalized world."
--Steven. R. David, Professor and Director of International Studies, Political Science, Vice Dean, Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
"Dr. Yetiv was an important commentator and source of information for a CNN Special that I produced, Back to Baghdad--which won an Overseas Press Club Award...He was vital to our program because he not only understood the wide range of issues...but could also convey their complexities...His enthusiasm for his subject is contagious...To be blunt: this guy likes to teach. We harnessed his energy."
--Andy Segal, Senior Producer, CNN International
Dr. Yetiv's...thoughtful treatment of the US role in the Middle East...has informed the views of senior policymakers and foreign affairs professionals...and has been instrumental in promoting a constructive dialogue on a complex set of policy issues...Dr. Yetiv's contributions to academic and public discourse reflect credit upon institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth of Virginia and Old Dominion University in particular. He is richly deserving of the honor for which he has been nominated.
---Alan Lang, Senior Adviser, U.S. Department of State
