OU'S INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS APPOINTS NEW ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

Scholar and Educator to Also Hold the Max and Heidi Berry Chair

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dc/6-26-08

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Donna Cline, (405) 325-3581, or dmcmom@ou.edu

     NORMAN – An international relations scholar and teacher whose expertise ranges from American foreign policy to relations among nations has been appointed associate director of International Programs at the University of Oklahoma following a national search to fill the position. Suzette Grillot, who joined the OU faculty in 1999 and has served in leadership posts for the School of International and Area Studies, also will hold the Max and Heidi Berry International Programs Center Chair.

     “The appointment of Suzette Grillot, one of OU’s most outstanding teachers and scholars, to this important post is an expression of the priority which the university places upon excellence in international programs,” said OU President David L. Boren.

     “We were fortunate to have a national search confirm the expertise of one of our current faculty,” said Zach Messitte, vice provost of International Programs and director of International Programs. “Suzette Grillot is an excellent scholar and teacher who is invested in the internationalization of OU and the state of Oklahoma. She is admired as a leader by her colleagues, and I look forward to working with her in months and years ahead.”

     “I have been working on international programs at OU for nine years and very much want to take my work to the next level and contribute even more to the development of international activities at the university,” Grillot said. “I saw this as an opportunity to give back to OU. This was my opportunity to further international programs and opportunities at the university and in the larger community, and I cannot wait to get started.”

     Grillot, who earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Georgia, has been the coordinator of international studies for the School of International and Area Studies since 2003 and served as the acting director for the SIAS from January to June 2007. Before coming to OU, she worked as the associate director of the Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia, where she led international research teams, developed international activities and managed fund-raising efforts.

     She teaches courses on International Relations Theory, International Security, International Organization and Regimes, Relations Among Nations, American Foreign Policy, European Security, and Politics of Central and Eastern Europe. She will continue to teach in the School of International and Area Studies.

     Grillot’s research interests focus on inter- and intra-state conflict and its resolution, NATO expansion, EU enlargement, foreign policy decision-making, weapons proliferation, transnational advocacy networks and the social psychology of state behavior. Her research has been supported by the U.S. Fulbright Program, the National Research Council, the United Nations Development Program, the Small Arms Survey, International Alert, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the National Council for Soviet and East European Research, the NATO Science Program, the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the University of Georgia and OU.

     Grillot currently is completing a book manuscript titled Small But Deadly: The Spread and Control of Light Weapons in Central and Eastern Europe. She co-edited and contributed to the books Arms on the Market: Reducing the Risk of Proliferation in the Former Soviet Union (1998) and Arms and the Environment: Preventing the Perils of Disarmament (2001). In addition, she has published articles in The British Journal of Political Science, International Politics, Political Psychology, The Nonproliferation Review, The Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans and The Southeastern Political Review. Such institutions as the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey and UK-based International Alert have published Grillot’s research on small arms and light weapons in Central and Eastern Europe.