The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), based here at the University of Maryland, is currently accepting applications for the Spring 2019 Internship Program! Below are descriptions of the internship opportunities that are accepting applicants for the spring.
Communications Internship
The START Communications team is seeking communications, public relations or journalism students to serve as interns this upcoming spring semester. Rather than performing START research, candidates chosen for this project will gain extensive experience writing and publishing, developing social media strategies, and monitoring and reporting various analytics for the organization as a whole. Interns will also have the opportunity to work with the news media, learn media list and monitoring programs, and work in graphic design.
The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is the most comprehensive unclassified terrorism database in the world. Currently updated through 2017, the GTD details information on more than 180,000 terrorist attacks that have occurred since 1970. Data from the GTD have been featured by the BBC, CNN, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Economist, The New York Times, Reuters, The Washington Post, and numerous other media outlets. The data are also used by the United States Department of State in its annual publication, Country Reports on Terrorism. GTD interns gain valuable experience working on a time-sensitive data collection effort that is used by those responsible for shaping United States counterterrorism policy. The GTD intern team is organized into the following themes:
- GTD: Incident Location and Geographic Identification
- GTD: Perpetrator Identification
- GTD: Target Classification
- GTD: Understanding the Patterns and Use of Weapons and Tactics
- GTD: The Consequences of Terrorism – Casualties and Outcomes
GIS: Data Collection & Cartography
This internship opportunity will provide cartographic assistance for a research project focusing on crime and conflict in West Africa. Interns will code and digitize geographic information that has been collected by field researchers through means of cognitive mapping interviews. Additional tasks may include conducting spatial analysis and/or spatial statistics to identify patterns within the data. The GIS team is seeking up to 3 interns to assist with this effort.
This internship opportunity will contribute to the expansion of START’s TransIT project. Tasks will include analysis and aggregation of large-scale datasets, manual vector editing, open-source research into global licit and illicit transportation methods, digital cartography, and translation of START’s qualitative research into geospatial formats. The GIS team is seeking up to 5 interns to assist with this effort.
ICONS Project Internship
The International Communication and Negotiation Simulations Project (ICONS) is a unit of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, College Park. ICONS creates web-based computer simulations for policy analysis and forecasting to help public and private sector organizations solve complex problems. Our policy division creates bespoke simulations to support think tanks, cabinet-level agencies, and Department of Defense major commands as they tackle complex national security challenges. Our Education Division places high school and college students from around the globe in challenging online simulation and gaming exercises that allow them to role-play resolving contentious geo-political issues.
International Crisis Behavior Project
The International Crisis Behavior Project (ICB) has for over 40 years collected and analyzed data on all military security crises in the international system. Under the direction of its founders Michael Brecher and Jonathan Wilkenfeld, ICB focuses on crucial themes including crisis trigger, major response, crisis management techniques, third party intervention including mediation, and forms of crisis outcomes. Recently, ICB has collaborated with the University of California San Diego (UCSD) on a long-term project focusing on cross-domain deterrence (CDD) in international crises. That is, the use of deterrence in one domain (for example economic sanctions) to counter an adversary’s behavior in another domain (armed attack). This joint University of Maryland/UCSD effort involves the merging of the CDD and ICB datasets prior to empirical analysis for both the academic and policy communities. Work on this project is funded by the Minerva Research Initiative, administered jointly by the Office of Basic Research and the Office of Policy at the U.S. Department of Defense.
Multimedia Internship
he START Communications team is seeking a Multimedia intern this upcoming spring semester. Rather than performing START research, candidates chosen for this project will gain extensive experience filming and editing professional training videos, assisting in designing concepts for multimedia projects and using a studio lighting kit to produce high quality video. Interns will also have the opportunity to work with the Multimedia team in order to design graphics and photograph company events.
Unconventional Weapons and Technology (UWT): Aviation Insider Threat Research Internship
A principal goal of the homeland security enterprise is the deterrence, detection, and prevention of radiological and nuclear (RN) terrorism against the United States. This effort is pursued in part through the understanding and analysis of various pathways and modalities of attack which adversaries could exploit. With the 2010 attempt by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to infiltrate the international air cargo (IAC) system, focus has turned to the possibility of the IAC becoming susceptible to terrorist plots involving uncontrolled RN materials, as well as the development of “insiders” who could help to facilitate these ends. Through rigorous study of the air cargo industry and the psychosocial factors which could precede a vetted employee’s choice to betray his or her company’s commercial goals, START has developed a novel modeling and diagnostic tool relying on a brand new approach to improving air cargo and air cargo personnel security now deployed in the IAC system. During the fall 2018 period, the project team will execute the software tool’s deployment with government and commercial cargo entities.
Pathways to Violence: Understanding Hate Crime Offenders
This internship will support START researchers in identifying and assessing the individual pathways of hate crime offenders via the new BIAS (Bias Incidents and Actors Study) dataset. BIAS builds on the team’s PIRUS (Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States) dataset, which contains information on the pathways, mechanisms, and consequences of violent and non-violent extremism at the individual level. The BIAS dataset draws on an innovative combination of research in terrorism, criminology, sociology, psychology, and political science, with the goal of identifying the configurations of background characteristics, life-course events, and social relationships that condition and facilitate individuals’ involvement in hate crimes.
Risk and Crisis Communication
Governments rely on risk and crisis communication for delivering messages about impending storms, terrorist attacks, public health crises, and more. START's Risk Communication and Resilience team seeks two interns to support ongoing research projects as well as new projects that may be funded before the internship begins. Interns may support applications for sponsored research.
START/State Department Terrorist Organizations Project Internship
START is excited to be able to offer a limited number of highly selective intern positions to students interested in working on projects for the U.S. State Department using START data (such as the GTD) and other open sources. Students will be tasked with developing materials that create a realistic scenario based on extensive research on history, geopolitical situations, and internal religious or ethnic cleavages in a region in support the Bureau of Counterterrorism training efforts. This internship will be co-supervised by START on-site staff at the University of Maryland and by project leads at the U.S. State Department. The U.S. State Department leads will set and give feedback on tasks.
Unconventional Weapons and Technology (UWT): Advanced Research Internship
Designed for highly motivated, high-performing students, Advanced Research Interns participate in high-level substantive research and analysis for a variety of projects within the broader unconventional weapons and technology portfolio. Past Advanced Research Interns were tasked with projects such as designing models of insider threats in the aviation system, conducting imagery analysis of nuclear facilities to determine vulnerabilities, and assessing sophisticated engineering capabilities of terrorist and criminal organizations. This internship provides an opportunity for extremely capable students to engage in research in a manner that is akin to a staff researcher at START and provides greater levels of responsibility and participation in real-world projects than many other internships. More advanced terrorism concepts and analytical skills are explored and developed in a collaborative, team-based environment. Advanced Research Interns may be involved in multiple projects simultaneously and have the opportunity to help transition projects into a variety of mediums and publications, including potential opportunities for co-publications.
Unconventional Weapons and Technology (UWT): Improvised Threat Technology Adoption Identification
Emergent improvised threats have gained prominence in the last decade as more adversaries try to adopt and use them. However, few studies have tried to tie new technologies criteria to specific characteristics of adversaries and their operational environment. This internship will allow students to conduct deep-dive research on empirical cases of terrorist groups’ adoption of new technologies. During this internship, students will be assigned a specific group to study and analyze its operational capability and its ability to successfully adopt new technologies.
Unconventional Weapons and Technology (UWT): Innovating CBRNe Activity Detection
UWT is seeking highly driven, outstanding students to participate in cutting-edge research on CBRNe (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons and explosives) adversary activity funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). These tasks cover an array of research techniques and subject areas including quantitative methods, adversary modelling, and chemical weapon development. The primary purpose is to assist DARPA in the development of innovative approaches for detecting CBRNe activity.
Unconventional Weapons and Technology (UWT): Innovative Discovery of Emerging and Novel Technologies
The purpose of this internship is to grant students the opportunity to better understand the threat that emerging and disruptive technologies pose to national security and advantages it may provide to adversaries. Students will be performing research on topics related to CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) technologies research and development. Students will also be involved in the conceptualization and testing of novel research methodologies.
Unconventional Weapons and Technology (UWT): Transnational Illicit Trafficking
Students joining this internship will be conducting open source research to profile transnational criminal organizations, as well as more loosely organized criminal networks. Interns will research specific groups, write summaries of their activities, isolate their areas of operation, and identify new or emerging patterns relevant to national security interests. Interns will have to code the data collected on the various organizations, and may also work to identify or verify through open sources research transportation networks in the regions of interest.
Understanding Extremist Networks
This internship will support START research focused on the processes of radicalization to violent in the United States. The core component of this research portfolio is the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) dataset, the largest dataset of US-based cases of radicalization of its kind, which contains information on the trajectories, mechanisms, and consequences of violent and non-violent extremism at the individual level. PIRUS and its related projects have already generated significant attention among policymakers and scholars, and PIRUS researchers have published several reports and articles based on the data.
Why choose an internship at START?
- Experience working with a large team of dynamic and experienced researchers.
- Exposure to cutting edge theories and methods.
- Deepen your understanding of current issues in terrorism and homeland security.
- Work on projects of immediate interest to the practitioner and policy community.
- Hone and develop a range of transferable skills attractive to future employers.
- Opportunity to work with and meet other students and researchers with similar interests.
- Enrichment activities offering wide opportunities for learning and personal growth, schedule includes simulations, career presentations and research talks.
- Mentorship from START staff and researchers in a successful professional environment.
- Internships can be undertaken for academic credit (depending on approval from your institution and department).
General requirements
Applicants for all internships must:
- Have a good academic record.
- Demonstrate an interest in the subject matter.
- Be able to complete their internship work hours on site at START.
- Agree to attend orientation and training.
- Submit an application by the deadline, all application packets must include:
- A complete application for the correct semester (available at http://www.start.umd.edu/ca
reers/internships), - One page resume,
- Cover letter,
- Writing sample,
- Unofficial transcripts from most recent institution.
Each project may have additional requirements, including minimum credit hours, preferred majors and compulsory meeting times.
How to apply
Final application deadline Spring 2019: Sunday, November 11, 2018; 11:59pm
Applicants should visit http://www.start.umd.edu
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