This lecture is part of the Sustainable Development Research Seminar Series for RCE Greater Atlanta's Higher Education Learning Community (HELC). The speaker is Volker Franke, professor of conflict management in the School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding and Development (SCPMD) at Kennesaw State University (KSU). Attendees can join via Zoom or in-person at SCPMD House, Room 117 at KSU.

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Volker Franke is founder and chairman of TRENDS Global, an Atlanta based non-profit organization empowering disadvantaged and underserved populations through research and engagement locally, nationally and globally. Franke is also a professor of conflict management at Kennesaw State University (KSU) and the founding director of the Ph.D. program in International Conflict Management at KSU. Prior to KSU, he served as director of research at the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), one of Germany’s premier peace and conflict research and capacity-building institutes (2006-2008). From 1998-2007, he was director and managing editor of the National Security Studies Case Studies Program at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Franke holds a Ph.D. in political science from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from North Carolina State University and an MA in political science and sociology from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. He is the author of Preparing for Peace: Military Identity, Value-Orientations, and Professional Military Education (Praeger 1999) and more than 40 journal articles, book chapters, case studies and research reports on issues related to peace and security studies, conflict management, civil-military relations, development policy and social identity. He is also the editor of Terrorism and Peacekeeping: New Security Challenges (Praeger 2005) and Security in a Changing World: Case Studies in U.S. National Security Management (Praeger 2002), and co-editor Understanding Complex Military Operations (Routledge 2015), Conflict Management and “Whole of Government:” Useful Tools for U.S. National Security Strategy? (Strategic Studies Institute 2012) and Conflict Management and Peacebuilding: Pillars of a new American Grand Strategy? (Strategic Studies Institute, 2014).