Five Questions with Thomas Lassi
1. Tell us about yourself
I’m originally from northern Sweden, from a tiny rural area north of the Arctic Circle. I did my undergrad at Luleȧ University of Technology in northern Sweden and my masters at Oklahoma State University, where I also worked as a lecturer for a year before pursuing my PhD. I completed my PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Fall of 2018.
After my PhD I ended up here. I’m primarily interested in international politics with a focus on conflict and peace research. I’m interested in questions that relate to war, international conflict and violence. Compared to a lot of other political scientists, we have an easier time making what we do sound interesting to outsiders. Wars are among the most destructive things that humans can do to each other and to the environment. It is in our interest to understand why conflicts happen, why we see loss of life, why we see large scale destruction. I think these are important questions and the more we know about them, maybe we’ll learn how to prevent war and, if conflicts are an unavoidable fact of life, maybe we can better manage conflicts.
A few years ago, I stumbled upon a quote that was along the lines of “We study world politics because we believe the fate of the world depends on it.” I think I subscribe to that idea.
2. How did you end up at ASU?
I was on the academic job market, at ASU they had job opening at the Center on the Future of War. They recently started a brand new Masters in Global Security and were looking for scholars who are interested in doing research and who are interested in teaching classes and designing classes to help build the program. When I did my interviews with the directors of the Center, they were both really optimistic and enthusiastic about the program and ASU as a whole with its focus on innovation They made it sound like such a fun thing to be a part of. I don’t think you often get a chance to be a part of something when it is starting out, especially in academia, and to be part of that is very exciting, I think it’s a great experience regardless of what I end up doing, whether I stay at ASU or go somewhere else, the experience is going to be incredibly valuable.
3. Do other universities have a “Center for the Future of War?” That must raise some eyebrows…
[Laughs] It’s a cool name for the Center, I think. There are other research institutes and universities that focus on international security. But yes, the name stands out. Other than just the name, one of the things that is really innovative is the relationship we have with a think tank in D.C. called New America. The Center and the Master’s program have an institutionalized relationship with New America. New America has dozens - hundreds of fellows that are associated with them, we are using those fellows to teach classes and to bring in experts on different subjects such as human rights, terrorism and other topics. There is a yearly conference called the Future Security Conference that tries to bring together scholars, journalists, and policy makers to talk about the future of international politics and there’s an emphasis on subjects such as cyber security and other things that we are trying to deal with in a rapidly changing world. The relationship between the Center and the think tank, which I think is really cool, doesn’t exist anywhere else that I know of. At least not in this form.
4. What research projects are you working on right now?
I’m working on publishing articles based on my dissertation. My dissertation focused on democratization and conflict. Since the end of the Second World War, the number of democracies has seen a 5-fold increase. We have studied democracies a lot, but we haven’t really studied states that are undergoing a change to democracy. We know states do not become democracies overnight, there is some sort of transition period. Scholars have not reached a consensus on whether states that are in this transition are more or less peaceful in their interactions with other states. My dissertation studied that group of states and my argument is that democratization can have a negative impact on the prospects of peace when countries have existing territorial issues with other countries. In these countries is you are going to see domestic politics characterized by nationalistic arguments and different factions competing for power based on nationalistic arguments, especially when you have populations that might not be used to democracy and aren’t used to arguments about policy or how they’re going to vote, whereas a nationalist argument has a lot of appeal. My argument is when you combine democratization with territorial issues, it is a really bad cocktail.
5. What are your thoughts on the state of U.S. politics right now?
I think that what a lot of people see in U.S. politics isn’t happening in isolation from the rest of the world. And so, you are seeing a trend away from politics centered on what socio-economic class you belong to and class-based arguments, and arguments are becoming much more about identity. What we are seeing recently is a trend in which nationalistic identities, and what some people describe as populist movements, are becoming stronger. Not just in the United States but also elsewhere. If you look in Europe, if you look at Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, in all of these countries, you see right-wing populist movements gaining popularity. And that trend is also true in the United States. As political science scholars, we ask why this is happening. One of the reasons we can pinpoint is globalization. As we are becoming more interconnected, more global, it is fundamentally changing societies. You have those that perceive themselves to be worse off because of globalization and the new world that has emerged. These people are looking for someone to represent them and they are not satisfied with the answers provided by existing elites. That is something that is happening not just in the United States, but in many places around the globe.
Bonus Question: What’s your dream job?
I would really like to play in the NHL, but I don’t suppose that’s going to happen. Other than that, I love academia, I would love to keep doing research, and continue teaching. What I’m doing right now, I’d love to continue to do.