{"id":859,"date":"2026-08-25T15:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/intelligence-and-security-studies\/?page_id=859"},"modified":"2026-08-25T15:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:12:17","slug":"john-polga-hecimovich","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/intelligence-and-security-studies\/john-polga-hecimovich\/","title":{"rendered":"John Polga-Hecimovich"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 id=\"h-national-security-conference-2026-guest-speakers\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">National Security Conference 2026 Guest Speakers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/intelligence-and-security-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/85\/Prof-Hecimovich-J-8x10_002-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-860\" style=\"object-fit:cover;width:350px;height:500px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/intelligence-and-security-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/85\/Prof-Hecimovich-J-8x10_002-scaled.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/intelligence-and-security-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/85\/Prof-Hecimovich-J-8x10_002-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/intelligence-and-security-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/85\/Prof-Hecimovich-J-8x10_002-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/intelligence-and-security-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/85\/Prof-Hecimovich-J-8x10_002-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/intelligence-and-security-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/85\/Prof-Hecimovich-J-8x10_002-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/intelligence-and-security-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/85\/Prof-Hecimovich-J-8x10_002-1638x2048.jpg 1638w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<h4 id=\"h-john-polga-hecimovich-united-states-naval-academy\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">John Polga-Hecimovich<br>United States Naval Academy<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John Polga-Hecimovich is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy, where he has also been the director of the Forum for Latin American Studies. John has an MA in Latin American Studies from the Universidad Andina Simon Bol\u00edvar in Ecuador and received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh. John\u2019s research studies the effects of political institutions on democratic stability, policymaking, and governance, with a focus on Latin America. He has published peer-reviewed articles in places such as&nbsp;<em>The Journal of Politics<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>Political Research Quarterly<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>Democratization<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>Latin American Politics and Society<\/em>, and the&nbsp;<em>Latin American Research Review<\/em>, as well as dozens more editor-reviewed articles, book chapters, policy papers, and op-eds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Outside of the classroom, John has given briefings to the US State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and US Southern Command on issues related to Latin American politics, and he served as electoral systems expert for the Organization of American States electoral observation to Ecuador in 2019. John is an executive committee member of the Venezuelan Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association, and he has participated in several working groups examining Venezuela\u2019s political crisis for DC-area&nbsp;think tanks. He has been quoted in the national press, including&nbsp;<em>The New York Times<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>The Washington Post<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>National Public Radio<\/em>, and&nbsp;<em>The Atlantic Monthly<\/em>, among others. A native English speaker, John is fluent in Spanish and also speaks Portuguese.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Security Conference 2026 Guest Speakers John Polga-HecimovichUnited States Naval Academy John Polga-Hecimovich is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy, where he has also been the director of the Forum for Latin American Studies. John has an MA in Latin American Studies from the Universidad Andina Simon Bol\u00edvar in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-859","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>John Polga-Hecimovich - Department of Intelligence and Security Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citadel.edu\/intelligence-and-security-studies\/john-polga-hecimovich\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Polga-Hecimovich\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"National Security Conference 2026 Guest Speakers John Polga-HecimovichUnited States Naval Academy John Polga-Hecimovich is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy, where he has also been the director of the Forum for Latin American Studies. 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