Academia

There always has been a yearning to learn about the world around me. Critical thinking and understanding how the world works has driven me into areas of topics I am unfamiliar or have little understanding with. I have never been the most academically gifted or attended the best colleges for colleges like a stable genius, the interest to learn and understand is always present.

In this ongoing KnowledgeQuest, I have written several research projects in English and Political Science. I am open to sharing my work as a means for others, who may thirst for knowledge, to consume. If you do use my work in any academic measure, please cite it though I highly recommend you check out the Work Cited page for dozens of incredible sources for a better, more in-depth understanding. As a side note, I always use MLA (which may not be applicable for History or Political Science which prefer Chicago Style of citations).

Dying to Understand Terrorism and the Islamic State

Dying to Understand Terrorism and the Islamic State is a project of love and labor which I undertook with Dr. Chuck Rowling at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. I had been interested in discovering the roots of the Islamic State and how they had amassed their power, spread their influence and if they could be defeated in Iraq and Syria.

The research project is broken into five parts:

Defining Terrorism and Objectives – serves as an introduction to what terrorism is and why it is employed.

After the Twin Towers – focuses on Afghanistan, Iraq and the beginnings of the Islamic State.

Theories and Realities and the Islamic State – shifts the discussion to primarily on the Islamic State, the spread of the caliphate and its terror.

A New Type of Terrorism – the decay of the Islamic State has brought about a new form of terrorism in attacks being carried out by lone wolves with a loose affiliation to conventional ideas of terrorist or extremist organizations.

The “Defeat” of the Islamic State – is a brief update to the fate of the Islamic State, written roughly a year since Trump became the commander-in-chief.