Dr. Brent Talbot has extensive teaching and research experience in Middle Eastern political and security-related issues, and teaches Politics of the Contemporary Middle East for the Bush School’s Graduate Certificate in Advanced International Affairs program.
Dr. Talbot also serves as a Professor and Director of Research for the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Department of Military and Strategic Studies, where he has taught the last 15 years, and prior to that he taught in the Department of Political Science for an additional 7 years. He has also served as an adjunct professor for the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver (2003-2011). Some of the courses he has taught include Arab-Israeli Wars, Politics of the Middle East, U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. National Security Policy, U.S. in the Middle East: Post Saddam, and Military Strategies of the Greater Middle East. While teaching, he has escorted his Air Force Academy students to Israel (JINSA Academies Program), Jordan (Arabic language immersion and flight training exchange), Turkey (Air Academy exchange), and the United Arab Emirates (cultural immersion).
His Middle East expertise has resulted in invitations to speak at Brigham Young University and Xavier University in New Orleans. He also has participated in workshops at Brandeis University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to a gain greater understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict, a key interest of any Middle East politics course.
Dr. Talbot has been actively engaged in research dealing with Middle Eastern security issues. He has sought to involve students in his research and has published research co-authored by students and other faculty. He also has published in many journals and has been an invited chapter contributor to books dealing with security related issues. He has also served as editor for the ISSS Professional Notes, a biannual publication to all members of the International Securities Studies Section, International Studies Association.
He has been honored with the Dorn Outstanding Researcher Award (2004, 2008, 2009), the Outstanding Academy Educator (top 20 of 508 faculty, 1999) and a Heiser Award nominee (student-nominated outstanding professor, 2003) by the U.S. Air Force Academy.
He has made numerous presentations such as “Israel, Iran, and the Nuclear Proliferation Dilemma in the Middle East” at Oxford University in England, “Israel and Iran’s Nuclear Infrastructure” at the Association of Israel Studies Annual Conference in Toronto, “Countering the Radical Islamist Message: Image Management as Counterterror Strategy” at Oxford University in England, “Disarming Hezbollah” at the International Security Studies Section Annual Conference in Colorado, and “The Transatlantic Gap Over Iraq” at a NATO-sponsored conference hosted by Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Dr. Talbot earned a BA and MA in International Relations from Brigham Young University and a PhD in International Politics, Comparative Politics and International Security from Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver.
