Biography

Corri Zoli’s research focuses on contemporary problems of warfare from an interdisciplinary social science, public policy, and law perspective, with attention to the culture and governance of contemporary conflict dynamics, changing patterns of global conflict, and the role of international humanitarian law in contemporary conflict dynamics.

One track of Zoli’s research investigates the changing nature of the US military force structure, the challenges of asymmetric warfare for military personnel, and data-driven inquiry into servicemembers’ and veterans’ service and post-service experiences, including post-9/11 veterans’ reintegration and subsequent pathway in higher education, civic engagement, and employment. Zoli’s veterans research uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to help prioritize their perspectives, as in the co-authored white paper, Missing Perspectives: Servicemembers’ Transition from Service to Civilian Life.

On another track, Zoli analyzes the role of technology, culture, and religion in contemporary security dynamics and in postconflict transition. This includes the role of Islamic law in mitigating conflict and postconflict dynamics; Muslim-majority states’ international law conflict and compliance behavior; problems of law and governance in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and the importance of Islamic and international norms for transitioning post-Arab Spring states.

In her graduate/law seminar “Law and War,” Zoli prioritizes interdisciplinary research with various partners in and beyond Syracuse University, including the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF); United States Institute of Peace (USIP); New America Foundation (NAF); International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences (ISISC); the US Department of State; and others.

Zoli’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and Google. Her work has been published in Foreign Policy, Harvard National Security Journal, and the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, among other venues.

Zoli earned her Ph.D. in cultural studies and international relations at SU (2004) and completed all credits in the professional policy master’s degree program at SU Maxwell School. She is a senior researcher at IVMF; a faculty member in political science and international relations at Maxwell School; an honorary professor at the Institute for Religion, Politics, and Society at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne; and Chair of the Academic Advisory Board for the Warrior-Scholar Program.

Media & Policy Impact

Media Appearances

[wp-rss-aggregator]

Reports & Working Papers

Missing Perspectives: Servicemembers’ Transition from Service to Civilian Life.” Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) High Education Research Series (November 2015). (With Rosalinda Maury, Danny Fay, & Nick Armstrong.)

Understanding Global Opportunity: Exploring the Role of the US Department of State’s Office of Global Partnership in Public-Private  Partnership (P3) Development of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. November 2015. C. Zoli, M. Hermann, C. Gerard, C. Page, & W. Wicker.

Patterns of Conduct: Libyan Regime Support for and Involvement in Acts of Terrorism.” UNHRC Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations in Libya Report (April 2011). (With Shani Ross and Sahar Azar, INSCT.)

The ‘God Gap’ in International Humanitarian Law: Lessons Learned from Islamic Jurisprudence.” INSCT Working Paper Series (Jan. 1, 2012).

Transition and Reconstruction in Afghanistan: Evolving US-Afghan Partnerships. Kabul International Visitor Leadership Program Report (January 2012). (With N. Armstrong.)

Publications

Book Chapters & Reference Book Entries

“Military Culture & Humanitarian Actions: Short-Term Gains & Long-Term Losses.” In Force and Tool: How Culture Shapes the Military and Military Operations. Ed. H.C. Breede. University of British Columbia Press, 2018. (With R. Rubinstein.)

“Civil-Military Relations from International Conflict Zones to the United States: Notes on Mutual Discontents and Disruptive Logics.” In Rethinking Civil-Military Relations: Anthropological Perspectives. Eds. B.R. Sørensen & E. Ben-Ari, Eds. New York: Berghahn Books, 2018. (With R. Rubinstein.)

“Data-Driven Inquiry, Servicemembers’ Perspectives and Redefining Success.” In What’s Next for Student Veterans? Moving from Transition to Academic Success, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. Ed. D. DiRamio (University of South Carolina, 2017).

“Adaptive Resilience & Critical Infrastructure Security: Emergent Challenges for Transportation & Cyberphysical Infrastructure.” In Securing Transportation Systems. Eds. Simon Hakim, Gila Albert, & Yoram Shiftan. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2016. (With Laura J. Steinberg.)

“Asymmetric Warfare.” In SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior. Ed. F. Moghaddam. Forthcoming, 2017.

“The Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Politicizing Maritime Law in Asymmetric Contexts.” In Counterinsurgency Law: New Directions in Asymmetric Warfare. Ed. William Banks. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

“The Strategic Roots of Arab Federalism and Its Failure: Transnational Sovereign Power Issues, Military Rule, and Arab Identity.” In Defunct Federalisms: Critical Perspectives on Federal Failure. Eds. Emilian Kavalski & Magdalena Zolkos. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2008.

Humanizing Irregular Warfare: Framing Compliance for Nonstate Armed Groups at the Intersection of Security and Legal Analyses.” In New Battlefields/Old Laws: Critical Debates on Asymmetric Warfare. Ed. William C. Banks. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.

Articles & Blog Entries

“Terrorist Critical Infrastructures, Organizational Capacity, and Security Risk.” Safety Science (June 2018). (With L.J. Steinberg & M. Grabowski.)

“The Changing Role of Law in Security Governance: Post 9/11 ‘Gray Zones’ and Strategic Impacts.” Syracuse Law Review, 67 (2017). 

 “Is There Any Defense Against Low-Tech Terror?” Foreign Policy, Oct. 2, 2017.

“Supporting Post-9/11 Military Veterans in Higher Education.” Military Times, July 27, 2017. (C. Zoli, D. Fay, S. Ellington, & D. Segal.)

Justice in Post-Conflict Settings: Islamic Law and Muslim Communities as Stakeholders in Transition.” Utrecht Journal of International and European Law, 33 (2017). (With M.C. Bassiouni & H. Khan.) Forthcoming. 

The ‘God Gap’ in International Affairs: Missing Cross-Cultural Conversations in International Humanitarian Law and Islamic Jurisprudence.” Florida Journal of International Law, 28 (2016).

Lone-Wolf or Low-Tech Terrorism? Emergent Patterns of Global Terrorism in Recent French and European Attacks.” Lawfare (Aug. 17, 2016).

Islamic Contributions to International Humanitarian Law: Recalibrating TWAIL Approaches for Existing Contributions & Legacies.” AJIL Unbound: Symposium on TWAIL Perspectives on ICL, IHL, & Intervention (March 2016). 

What the Academy Doesn’t Know About the Vet: Exploring the Top Five Oversights.Foreign Policy (Nov. 23, 2015). (With Rosalinda Maury, Danny Fay, & Nick Armstrong.)

“In Search of Post-9/11 Veterans’ Missing Perspectives.” War on the Rocks (April 23, 2015). (With Rosalinda Maury & Danny Fay.)

“Armed Conflict & Compliance in Muslim States, 1947–2014: Does Conflict Look Different Under IHL?” North Carolina Journal of International Law & Commercial Regulation, 40:3 (Spring 2015). (With Emily Schneider & Courtney Schuster.)

Ten Recommendations for Obama’s CVE Summit.” Foreign Policy, Feb. 18, 2015. (With Emily Schneider.)

Why Iraq Must Stop Playing the Shari’a Card.” New America Foundation Weekly Wonk (Nov. 13, 2014). (With Emily Schneider & Alliya Anjum.)

How Islamic Is Pakistan’s Constitution?Foreign Policy (May 15, 2014). (With Emily Schnieder.)

What Egypt’s New Constitution Tells Us About Political Transition.Fletcher Forum on World Affairs, Tufts University (March 12, 2014). (With Courtney Schuster.)

Shari’a Strategy: Rule of Law Replacing the State.Syria in Crisis, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Jan. 4, 2014). (With Emily Schneider.)

“Shari’a Courts Move to the Battlefield: Jabhat al-Nusra Opens a Legal Front in the Syrian Civil War.” National Security Journal (Jan. 3, 2014). (With Emily Schneider.)

Privacy in Muslim Constitutions & the Bilateral Security Agreement.” The Washington Post (Jan. 2, 2014). (With Emily Schneider.)

Baton Rouge Post-Katrina: The Role of Critical Infrastructure Modeling in Promoting Resilience.” Homeland Security Affairs, 7 (February 2011). (With Laura Steinberg, SU LC Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, and Nicholas Armstrong, INSCT.)

Post 9/11 Stability Operations: How U.S. Army Doctrine is Shaping National Security Strategy.” PRISM, 2:1 (December 2010). (With Nicholas Armstrong, INSCT.)

Book Reviews

A Review of Militant Islam: A Sociology of Characteristics, Causes, and Consequences by Stephen Vertigans.” Journal of Shi’a Islamic Studies, 4:4 (2011).

Reports, White Papers, & Working Papers

“Review of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act for Human Rights and IHL Training Provided by the Departments of State and Defense to Security Forces of Foreign Nations.” US Government Accountability Office Teleconference. April 19, 2018.

Women in the Military: From Service to Civilian Life.” Institute for Veterans and Military Families, Syracuse University.  March 2018. (With R. Maury, D. Fay, N. Armstrong, N. Boldon, R.K. Linsner, and G. Cantor.)

Missing Perspectives: Servicemembers’ Transition from Service to Civilian Life.” Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) High Education Research Series (November 2015). (With Rosalinda Maury, Danny Fay, & Nick Armstrong.)

Understanding Global Opportunity: Exploring the Role of the US Department of State’s Office of Global Partnership in Public-Private  Partnership (P3) Development of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. November 2015. C. Zoli, M. Hermann, C. Gerard, C. Page, & W. Wicker.

“Building Awareness of ETETE Careers, Pathways, and Academic Preparation for Service Members: Recommendations for Navigating Opportunities and Challenges” (2013) (With Laura Steinberg.)

The ‘God Gap’ in International Humanitarian Law: Lessons Learned from Islamic Jurisprudence.” INSCT Working Paper Series (Jan. 1, 2012).

Transition and Reconstruction in Afghanistan: Evolving US-Afghan Partnerships. Kabul International Visitor Leadership Program Report (January 2012). (With N. Armstrong.)

Patterns of Conduct: Libyan Regime Support for and Involvement in Acts of Terrorism.” UNHRC Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations in Libya Report (April 2011). (With Shani Ross and Sahar Azar, INSCT.)

From Battlefield to Classroom: Finding Barriers and Pathways to Engineering for US Servicemembers” (2011). (With Laura J. Steinberg & Nick Armstrong.)

Teaching

Law/Policy Courses & Syllabi

emerging issues in international law (LAW 810)

Week 1 Slides

INSCT Research Center (Law 822)

Syllabus

Refugee Law (Law 831)

Syllabus

Refugee Law Presentation Week 1

Refugee Law Presentation Week 2

Refugee Law Presentation Weeks 4-5

Afghanistan & Pakistan (PAI 626)

Syllabus

Law & War (PSC 700)

Syllabus


Example Student Research & Mentorship

INSCT RESEARCH CENTER (LAW 822)

2017 Project: “Understanding Interdisciplinary Responses to International Terrorism & Violent Extremisms”

On April 28, 2017, students in INSCT Director of Research Corri Zoli’s National Security and Counterterrorism Research Center presented research findings in the workshop “Understanding Interdisciplinary Responses to International Terrorism & Violent Extremisms” at SU College of Law. The students’ work was the culmination of a semester-long partnership with Emory University, George Washington University, and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Strategic Partnerships with Colleges and Universities.
 

Brittney Clark

 

Kaitlyn Degnan

 

Brittani Howell

 

Zachary Lucas and Pauline Mabie

 

Lauren Lyons

 

Mahmoud Farouk

 

Charles Midkiff

 

Ethan Peterson

 

Liad Roytfarb

Katherine Russell

 

Sarah Wheeler

Islam & IHL
Muslim State Armed Conflict & Compliance (MSACC) Dataset: 1947-2014

Warrior-Scholar Project

The Warrior-Scholar Project (WSP) empowers enlisted military veterans by providing them with a skill bridge that enables a successful transition from the battlefield to the classroom; maximizes their education opportunities by making them informed consumers of education, and increases the confidence they will need to successfully complete a rigorous four-year undergraduate program at a top-tier school.

WSP Board of Academic Advisors (Corri Zoli, Chair)

WSP Press Release Announcing Board of Academic Advisors (Feb. 17, 2016)

Enriching Academic Life for Veterans (SU Magazine | Spring 2017)

Corri Zoli ’91, G’93, G’04 knows intimately the paradox at the heart of America’s support for its all-volunteer military. “We often talk about ‘supporting veterans’ without really thinking about what that means,” says Zoli, co-author of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at SU report Missing Perspectives: Servicemembers’ Transition from Service to Civilian Life (with IVMF’s Rosalinda Maury and Florida State University professor Danny Fay). “We know very little about the veterans in our midst. We thank them for their service—but too often that’s where the conversation ends” …

WSP Curriculum Summer 2017

Reading List 2017

Syllabus 2017

  • Course objectives
  • Course structure
  • Course content
  • Pedagogical approach