Craig Albert, PhD, a leading expert in information warfare, national security studies and cyber conflict, has developed two of the top programs in higher education dedicated to these fields of study: the Master of Arts in Intelligence and Security Studies and a new PhD program in Intelligence, Defense, and Cybersecurity Policy.

His new PhD program, housed in the Department of Social Sciences in the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, just accepted the first student to the program as it begins to form the first cohort, and as Albert looks to continue to advance his programs and study he has been recognized with a prestigious honor.

Albert was recently named a higher education ambassador for the Council on Foreign Relations. Albert has long used CFR Education simulations like model diplomacy in the classroom to give students a hands-on experience grappling with the challenges of addressing today’s most pressing global issues. As a part of the Education Ambassador Program, Albert now supports the CFR Education mission to close the global literacy gap in our country by providing accessible, accurate, and authoritative global affairs resources to educators and students. This new opportunity is an honor he doesn’t take lightly as he knows the implications and opportunities this appointment comes with.

“The opportunity to be a higher education ambassador for the Council on Foreign Relations Education, one of the most prestigious organizations in the world for foreign policy, is a unique privilege,” Albert said. “Serving as an ambassador for CFR Education is a great honor because it’s a very competitive program, and it’s really just an honor and a privilege to work with the Council on Foreign Relations in any capacity because they are a nonpartisan group that dives into various forms of international relations and foreign policy and track with the top of the line research issues around current events.”

The CFR Education Ambassador program is a nine-month program that connects educators across the world with free educational resources, professional development activities and a vibrant network of like-minded professionals who are committed to equipping students with the knowledge, skills and perspective to navigate today’s connected world. The higher education program is dedicated to professors, instructors, librarians and administrators championing global affairs in colleges and universities across the country.

“Invitation to the ambassador program is awarded to scholars that CFR Education deems to be top educators in International affairs, international relations and security studies,” Albert said. “This opportunity allows us to really hone in on our pedagogical skills for international relations, and it’s going to do a lot to help us fine-tune our program offerings so our students will be properly prepared for the demands of their jobs.”

The core responsibility of the participants is to take advantage of CFR Education’s free teaching and learning resources and take part in ambassador meetings offered by CFR Education to learn how to implement the materials offered by CFR into the classroom. In Albert’s mind, that includes introducing simulations and other exercises into the classroom, even if it’s been viewed as impossible in certain situations.

Albert is excited to have access to the resources offered by CFR Education and what that will mean for his MAISS and new PhD students. He has already been diving into the materials and has even started to redesign some of his masters-level classes for his asynchronous offering of technical intelligence analysis to incorporate war games and simulations into them.

“Our goal is for our students to be able to take on roles as members of the National Security Council and roleplay for a few class days,” Albert said. “This is going to be innovative, unique and state-of-the-art, and we are excited to try this. The literature says it’s pretty much impossible to bring games and simulations into an asynchronous environment, but we think we’re going to be able to do it.”

To accomplish what has been deemed impossible in an online, asynchronous environment in the past, Albert has been working with several smaller groups within the CFR Education ambassador program to explore different ways to make it happen. He has looked at different types of war games and scenarios could also be added to his intelligence studies courses.

“There is a small working group within CFR that wants to put together some sort of simulation or war gaming situation for intelligence studies overall, which would be provocative and brand new to the field,” he said.

And he is already working on implementing these ideas at AU through Augusta University Online in designing intelligence analysis situations by using structured analytic techniques. This will allow Albert to demonstrate to students in an asynchronous environment classroom what’s usually seen live in a situation room as intel threats come in and responses to those threats are issued.

“Through AU Online, we’ve developed some really innovative ideas,” he said. “These methods will bring real-life situations into the asynchronous environment and make it seem real and practical so that our students will come out of these exercises understanding how things work in a real situation room and how you produce an intelligence product from raw information that they’re going to be given. It’s going to be really unique and really phenomenal.”