Dr. Frank Rusciano

Dr. Frank Rusciano, professor of political science at Rider University, has published a new book entitled "Global Rage after the Cold War" by Palgrave Publishers.

The book deals with issues right out of the headlines, from the Iraq War to Abu Ghraib to 9/11 and the problem of terrorism.

“The roots of rage in the post-Cold War era are not only directed against United States, as inter-ethnic, communal and other forms of violence demonstrate,” Dr. Rusciano said. “If we wish to understand terrorism, ethnic civil wars, and nuclear proliferation since the end of the Cold War, we must see all of these things as part of the same problem. Otherwise, our solutions will not work. This book argues that the status deficiency that results from the loss of a nation’s favored position in one hierarchy promotes a need among citizens to search for alternative means of delineating their country’s status. That leads to rage, either because it fails or because the only way a nation can assert its identity is through some act of violence or anger.”

Dr. Rusciano said this tends to be more subconscious than articulated.

“As part of attempts to assert identities in a local or global context, to reclaim status, resentment rises among nations and peoples and the tangible and intangible aspects of their identities become issues in the struggle for status,” he said. “This process results in a feeling of dislocation, a loss of identity and ultimately, a rage that makes individuals wish to strike out at those they perceive responsible.”

Topics in the book include: World Opinion on September 11 (If the World Doesn’t Hate Us, Why Would Someone Do This?); The Cold War Turned Upside Down; How We Come to be Who We Are: Constructing Identity Around the World; Fences Make Good Neighbors (Who is ‘German’ without the Wall?; China’s Two Faces: The Contradiction of Chinese Uniqueness; The Indian/Pakistani Nuclear Tests: Brinksmanship without A Cause; The War at Home: Identity Versus Values, and addressing the real problem, ‘Draining the Swamp of Despair.’

Dr. Rusciano is also author of World Opinion and the Emerging International Order (Westport: Praeger Publishers) and Isolation and Paradox: Defining ‘the public’ in Modern Political Analysis (Westport: Greenwood Press).

A member of Rider’s political science faculty since 1982, Dr. Rusciano and his wife, Roberta Fiske-Rusciano, adjunct assistant professor of political science, are involved in the political science department’s Global and Multinational Studies program. This interdisciplinary program allows majors to study all aspects of globalization and to design a course of study based on their own interests in such fields as global communications and institutions, regional studies, international relations, and foreign languages and culture.

Together, they recently concluded a semester-long videoconferencing project called Global Village, which had Rider students dialoguing on a weekly basis with students at the American University in Cairo, as well as universities in Palestine and Lebanon. This was to help Rider students and students abroad discuss differences and reach new cultural insight.

Dr. Rusciano specializes in the teaching of American politics, public opinion, survey technique and analysis and political communication, including specific courses in public opinion, methods of political analysis, political parties and electoral behavior, and the American presidency.

He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. He also received a B.A. degree in government and English literature from Cornell University, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa and a magna cum laude graduate.