Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center Announces New 2010–2011 Research Fellows

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is the hub of research, teaching, and training in international security affairs and diplomacy, environmental and resource issues, science and technology policy, and conflict studies at Harvard Kennedy School. The heart of the Center is its resident research community and more than 60 research fellows drawn from governments, academia, and the public and private sector. The Center's new 2010–2011 fellows come from 15 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.

"If Belfer is the heart of international studies at Harvard Kennedy School, the fellows are our life blood," said Kevin Ryan, Belfer Center's executive director for research. "They bring the oxygen to our efforts to understand the world and develop policy recommendations to make that world safer and better for all."

The Belfer Center's 2010–2011 fellows conduct research within the Belfer Center's International Security Program, Future of Diplomacy Project, Project on Managing the Atom, Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, and the Dubai Initiative. In addition, some fellows research within the core Belfer Center and others hold joint fellowships with other centers within Harvard Kennedy School.

Belfer Center Research Fellows

2010–2011

NEW FELLOWS

International Security Program

AJIN CHOI is an associate professor in the Graduate School of International Studies at Yonsei University, Republic of Korea. She received her Ph.D. in the Department of Political Science at Duke University in 2001 and was a national security fellow in the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University in 2001–2002. Choi's research focus is on the impacts of democracy on international relations; international conflict and its resolution; and alliance behavior.

Prior to the start of his Air Force Senior Developmental Education as a National Defense Fellow, Lt. Col. CASEY EATON was the deputy commander of the 15th Operations Group, 15th Wing, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. He assisted the commander in leading three operational squadrons and staff supporting worldwide efforts.  During his fellowship, Eaton's research will explore various aspects of the potentially diminishing influence the United States has on specific, regional international security issues.

ROSEMARY A. KELANIC is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Chicago. Her research interests include international relations theory, energy security, and resource conflict. Her dissertation examines the coercive potential of oil.  She aims to determine whether states can blackmail adversaries by threatening to cut off their access to oil, and if so, why.  Kelanic provides a theoretical explanation for what makes oil sui generis as a tool for political coercion and tests her claims using historical case studies.

IAN KLAUS focuses on the role of distance and technology in trust building, particularly in globalized or imperial settings. His work also focuses on post-conflict trust building, with particular attention to Iraq and Iraqi-Kurdistan.

PETER KRAUSE is a doctoral candidate in political science at MIT. His dissertation analyzes the political effectiveness of coercion and social movements. His other recent research projects examined the "Afghan Model" of warfare and operations at Tora Bora as well as methods for improving U.S. engagement with the peoples of the Middle East.

JAMES ESDAILE is a joint doctoral candidate in History and Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. He has worked and volunteered in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen with a focus on conflict resolution and counterinsurgency. He is writing a book about the socio-economic reasons for British imperial decline in the Middle East with a focus on Aden and the Gulf region.

TARA MALLER is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at MIT and a member of MIT's Security Studies Program.  Her dissertation develops and tests a new theory of the effectiveness of sanctions by assessing the role of information, communication, and diplomatic ties as determinants of sanction outcomes.  Her project aims to develop a more nuanced understanding of sanctions' success and failure through an analysis of both economic and diplomatic sanctions.

JONATHAN RENSHON is a Ph.D. candidate in the government department at Harvard University.  The focus of his research lies at the intersection of the psychology of judgment and decision-making and international security.  He is also a researcher in the Emotion and Decision-Making Group at the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory.

CHIARA RUFFA received a Ph.D. from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence in May 2010. Chiara's research interests revolve around International Relations at large and security and military studies in particular with a strong focus on humanitarian, development, and military actors in complex humanitarian emergencies.  Chiara is currently working on a project aimed at understanding the propensity of nongovernmental organizations and armies to cooperate in complex humanitarian emergencies. Her next project will be on the theoretical and practical distinctions between peacekeeping and counterinsurgency.

JOSHUA W. WALKER is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Crown Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University and a fellow at the German Marshall Fund based in Washington, D.C. Joshua will subsequently be joining the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies as an assistant professor in international and cross-cultural leadership studies in 2011.  Joshua's work focuses on international relations and security studies with a particular emphasis on the Middle East and East Asia.

HEIDI LANE is associate professor of strategy and policy and faculty advisor for greater Middle East regional studies curriculum at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Her research interests are in the sub-fields of ethnic-conflict, religious nationalism, and radicalization processes. She is currently completing the research for a book manuscript titled "Let's Make a Deal" — Walking the Line between Counterterrorism and Liberalization in the Arab and Islamic World.

NORRIN RIPSMAN is a professor in the political science department at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He received his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. His primary research interests include: the domestic sources of foreign security policy in democratic states, postwar peacemaking, constructing regional stability, neoclassical realism, international politics of the 1930s, the political economy of national security, and the impact of globalization on national security. (Spring 2011)

HANNE HAGTVEDT VIK is a postdoctoral researcher in twentieth century international history at the University of Oslo. She is currently working on a book manuscript with the tentative title Peace with Rights: American Lawyers and the Second International Human Rights Moment and does research for a case study on indigenous peoples' rights that explores democratic dimensions of globalization. Together with Professor Hilde Henriksen Waage, Vik co-chairs the Oslo Contemporary International History Network. She also supervises M.A. and B.A. students at the University of Oslo. In spring 2011, Vik will be teaching the course "Human Rights in the Twentieth Century" at Yale University with Professor Jay Winter. (Spring 2011)

International Security Program/Women and Public Policy Program

MAYA EICHLER holds a Ph.D. in political science from York University (Toronto). In 2009–2010, she was Hayward R. Alker Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for International Studies at the University of Southern California. Maya was selected for the 2010 Jill Vickers Prize awarded by the Canadian Political Science Association. She is currently completing a book manuscript on gender, conscription, and war in post-Soviet Russia as well as conducting research on gender and the privatization of military security.

International Security Program/Initiative on Religion in International Affairs

JOHN F. MCCAULEY is an assistant professor in the department of government and politics at the University of Maryland, where he is associated with the Center for International Development and Conflict Resolution.  His work explores the impact of religion on peace and conflict in Africa.  He has two ongoing research projects.  The first distinguishes religious conflict from ethnic or "tribal" conflict in Africa.  The second explores the growing influence of Pentecostalism on African political leaders and their constituents.

HENRIK URDAL (Ph.D., University of Oslo, 2007) is a political scientist and senior researcher at the Centre for the Study of Civil War, the Peace Research Institute Oslo. As of September 2010, he is editor of the international bi-monthly Journal of Peace Research. His research interests include: political demography; the demography of armed conflict; security implications of population pressure, environmental degradation and climate change; youth bulges; and demographic consequences of conflict. (Spring 2011)

International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

SUNGYEOL CHOI is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Energy Systems Engineering (integrated M.S. and Ph.D. program) at Seoul National University. His interests include nonproliferation, multilateralism, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and national infrastructure development for nuclear power. His dissertation develops a quantitative index for nonproliferation credibility of states based on nuclear proliferation and rollback experiences, which could be also one of decision-making tools for the accessibility to technologies in a multinational nuclear fuel cycle.

ANDREW J. COE is a Ph.D. candidate in the government department at Harvard University where he studies international relations and formal theory, with a focus on the political economy of conflict. His dissertation analyzes the environmental and economic causes of conflict. He is also an adjunct member of the research staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses, where he works mainly on issues of U.S. nuclear strategy and proliferation, as well as defense organization and planning.

NEERADA JACOB is a doctoral candidate at the School of International Service, American University.  Jacob's dissertation examines the impact of economic sanctions on ending nuclear weapons programs, giving particular focus to the cases of Taiwan, Iraq, and Libya.  She holds an M.A. in security and intelligence studies from the University of Pittsburgh with a certificate in Asian studies and an M.A. in international politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.

ALEX WELLERSTEIN will receive his Ph.D. from the Department of the History of Science, Harvard University, in December 2010 and be a joint postdoctoral fellow at the Project on Managing the Atom and International Security Program for 2010–2011. His work focuses on the history of nuclear secrecy in the United States from the Manhattan Project through the War on Terror ("Knowledge and the Bomb: Nuclear Secrecy in the United States, 1939–2008"). He will be a lecturer at Harvard University for the spring 2011 semester, teaching a course on science and the Cold War in addition to an introductory course in the history of science. In addition to his historical work, he is a graphic designer, web developer, and database programmer.

Col.(SEL) ZANNIS PAPPAS, a native of Athens, Greece, has been on active duty in the U.S. Air Force for 25 years and has held a number of assignments in intercontinental ballistic missiles operations and global positioning system satellite operations. He recently served as the commander of the 490th Missile Squadron, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, which provides 24-hour strategic nuclear deterrence with crews at five missile alert facilities commanding fifty intercontinental ballistic missiles constantly ready to launch against targets when directed by the president.

MAHSA ROUHI (Nuclear Security Fellow) is a Ph.D. candidate in international relations at University of Cambridge, UK, and a research associate at the Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her B.A. in economics from Shahid Beheshty University in Tehran and a master's degree in political theory from the University of Sheffield, UK. During her nuclear security fellowship, she will continue her dissertation research and writing on Iran's foreign and security policymaking, with a special focus on Iran's nuclear-related policymaking.

KARTHIKA SASIKUMAR (Nuclear Security Fellow) is an assistant professor of political science at San Jose State University, California. She earned her Ph.D. from the government department at Cornell University and previous degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Her current research projects deal with the adoption and adaptation of deterrence theory in South Asia, the implications of a "renaissance" in nuclear power, and civil-military relations in nuclearizing countries.

Science, Technology, and Public Policy

TOLUWALOGO (TOLU) ODUMOSU is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program. Topically, his research is focused on information and communication technologies (ICT), with particular emphasis on mobile devices and their appropriation, the design and implementation of national telecommunications infrastructure, and the governance of transnational ICT technical standards organizations. Tolu was most recently a fellow in the Program on Science, Technology, & Society where he completed his Ph.D. dissertation work, which examined Nigeria's adoption and use of mobile communication technologies.

MICHAEL SECHRIST is an information and communications technology fellow in the Science,Technology, and Public Policy Program. Michael's research interests include cybersecurity, international relations, intelligence policy and information, and communication infrastructure protection. Prior to coming to Cambridge, Michael served in various positions within the U.S. government, including as deputy associate director at the White House, special assistant to an under secretary at the department of state, and special assistant to an under secretary at the department of defense.

AADYA SHUKLA's doctoral (D.Phil.) research focuses on how to build trustworthy information systems for Electronic Governance and Health Informatics, where establishing the correctness, transparency, and accountability of the data and minimizing the cost of the information and communication technology (ICT)-based service provision is crucial, due to the critical role of information in decision-making. During her fellowship, she will be formulating a framework to parameterize and measure the impact of innovative semantic and ICT technologies in the public domain and construct models for improved cybersecurity in service orientated computing.

Science, Technology, and Public Policy/Dubai Initiative

KOBIKA (ARANI) KAJENTHIRA is a research fellow in the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Her research interests include: the impact of public policy in facilitating effective technology translation to developing nations; the intersection between environmental science, technology, and public policy; and the role of public policy in the management and distribution of water resources, particularly in light of climate change.

Geopolitics of Energy

JONAS MECKLING is the first Geopolitics of Energy research fellow. Meckling holds a Ph.D. in International Relations and a Master's degree in Environment and Development, both from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests include international climate politics, market-based environmental governance, and multinational corporations. Before joining academia, Jonas worked for the European Commission on international environmental policy.

Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group

HANNA BREETZ is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she spent two years as a fellow in the Program on Emerging Technologies.  Her dissertation explores the interest group politics surrounding alternative fuels in the United States, particularly in the cases of ethanol and coal-to-liquid fuels.  She holds a B.A. in government with a minor in environmental science from Dartmouth College.

EDWARD CUNNINGHAM is a joint postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group.  He is also an affiliate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Industrial Performance Center and a consultant to public and private sector organizations.  Cunningham graduated from Georgetown University, received an A.M. from Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and received his Ph.D. from the department of political science at MIT. His primary research interests relate to energy markets, comparative political economy, industrial organization and competitiveness, and public policy. He is fluent in Mandarin and Italian.

FENG FU's research interests include systems analysis of energy technology deployment and decision-making optimization. He was formerly a research fellow at Tsinghua BP Clean Energy Research & Education Center and China Automotive Energy Research Center at Tsinghua University.

ERIK MIELKE is studying how government policy can facilitate the acceleration of scale-up and commercialization of new energy technologies.  Erik recently completed a masters of public administration at Harvard Kennedy School as part of the school's mid-career program. Before coming to Harvard, he was managing director at Merrill Lynch, researching the oil and gas industry.

Environment and Natural Resources Program

Visiting Scholar LEILA DAGHER is assistant professor of economics at the American University of Beirut. Leila conducts research on the modeling, forecasting, and economics of energy markets. She is currently working on the Lebanese electricity and transport sectors.

Future of Diplomacy Project

Yvonne Yew is a fellow with the Belfer Center's Future of Diplomacy Project. A former Singapore diplomat, she has worked on regional and multilateral issues in Asia and in Europe. She was last posted in Austria, where she was responsible for establishing an office in Vienna and served as the Alternate Representative and Governor to the International Atomic Energy Agency during Singapore's term on the IAEA Board of Governors from 2004–2006. She was also consultant to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization's International Scientific Studies Project.

RETURNING FELLOWS

Belfer Center Core

ARNOLD BOGIS' research interests include radiological and nuclear terrorism as well as homeland security strategy, preparedness and response, intelligence, and risk analysis. Prior to joining the Belfer Center, he was a policy analyst for a Department of Homeland Security grant at George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute that developed policy and educational tools related to emergency medical service response to terrorism and natural disasters.

Simon Saradzhyan's research at the Belfer Center includes nuclear and conventional terrorism, arms control, U.S.-Russian relations, defense, security and space affairs in Russia and other newly-independent states. Saradzhyan, who earned a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School in 2002, has worked as a researcher for East West Institute and as a consultant for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). He also was a deputy editor of the Moscow Times and Moscow correspondent for Defense News.

International Security Program (ISP)

JENNIFER M. DIXON is currently completing a Ph.D. in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation, Changing the State's Story: Understanding the Sources of Change in Official Narratives, is an analysis of the sources of change and continuity in official narratives of traumatic historical events. Her work analyzes the trajectories of two states' narratives-the Turkish narrative of the Armenian genocide and the Japanese narrative of the Nanjing massacre.

CHUCK FREILICH was Israel's Deputy National Security Adviser for Foreign Affairs. Now a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center's International Security Program, Chuck's primary areas of expertise are U.S. Middle East policy and Israeli national security policy. He earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

BRENDAN RITTENHOUSE GREEN holds an A.B. in political science from the University of Chicago and is currently a doctoral candidate in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His dissertation focuses on two concepts of liberty: American grand strategy and the liberal tradition.

KELLY M. GREENHILL, an assistant professor at Tufts University, holds a S.M. and a Ph.D. in political science from MIT, a C.S.S. in international management from Harvard, and a B.A. (with highest honors) in political economy and in Scandinavian studies (double major) from the University of California, Berkeley. Much of her research focuses on the use of military force and what are frequently called "new security challenges," including internal and unconventional wars and humanitarian disasters, counterinsurgencies, and transnational criminal activities.

JACQUELINE L. HAZELTON is a former journalist who holds a B.A. and a M.A. in English literature and a M.A. in international relations from the University of Chicago. Her dissertation on compellence and accommodation in counterinsurgency warfare, asks under what conditions states defeat guerrilla insurgencies. Her cases include Dhofar, Oman; El Salvador; and Vietnam. Hazelton's interests also include international relations theory, asymmetric conflict, terrorism, Islamic political thought, and the uses of American military power.

PATRICK JOHNSTON completed his Ph.D. at Northwestern University in July 2009 and was a predoctoral fellow at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) from 2007–2009. Johnston's research focuses on insurgency and counterinsurgency. His current projects examine the effectiveness of strategies of coercion in counterinsurgency, the causes of insurgent victory, and the micro-dynamics of insurgency and counterinsurgency. Johnston's other research interests include insurgent organization, conflict resolution, and political economy.

JENNIFER KEISTER holds a B.A. (summa cum laude) in government from the College of William and Mary and is a political science Ph.D. candidate at UC San Diego.  Her research focuses on how rebel movements establish social contracts with civilian populations—why and how some groups provide public goods and build governance structures, while others engage in extortive behavior.  Her work looks at micro-dynamics of conflict, studying the ways in which the rebel-civilian relationship may comprise social, political, religious, and material benefits in addition to acts of violence.

CARLOTTA MINNELLA is a doctoral candidate in the department of politics and international relations at the University of Oxford. Her chief research interests are counter-terrorism, international relations theory, and the role of norms and ideas in shaping foreign and national security policymaking. Carlotta's dissertation explores the role of culture and the homogenizing power of international institutions in the genesis of counter-terrorism policies in the United States and in European Union member states.

RICHARD ROSECRANCE is an adjunct professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, a research professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a senior fellow of the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. At the Harvard Kennedy School, he is director of the Project on U.S.-China Relations. He has served on the Policy Planning Council of the department of state. Most recently, he co-edited History and Neorealism.

ANOOP SARBAHI, a Ph.D. Candidate in the UCLA department of political science, researches intra-state conflicts and transnational dimensions of intra-state wars. His current emphasis is on low-intensity intra-state wars; he is examining how the dynamics of a civil war is shaped by three different levels of interaction: the state and rebel movements; the different rebel factions, if any; and the rebel movement or faction and the population. Sarbahi was awarded the Jennings Randolph peace scholar fellowship by the Unites States Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C. for 2008–2009.

ANDREW STRIMLING is a scholar and practitioner whose work focuses on inter-agency, civil-military, and public-private coordination in post-conflict peace building and stabilization and reconstruction operations. She holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is currently an A.B.D. candidate at Tufts' Fletcher School.

MELISSA WILLARD-FOSTER is a UCLA political science Ph.D. candidate specializing in international relations, security studies, and quantitative methods. Her dissertation deals with the causes and consequences of foreign-imposed regime change. She holds a M.A. from the University of Chicago in international relations and a B.S. from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

International Security Program/ Project on Managing the Atom

PHILIPP BLEEK, an assistant professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the government department at Georgetown University, a master in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a bachelor's degree from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. A fellow of the Truman National Security Project and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, he researches issues related to weapons of mass destruction.

THOMAS NICHOLS is professor of national security affairs and a former chairman of the strategy department at the United States Naval War College in Newport, R.I., where he also holds the Forrest Sherman chair of public diplomacy.  Nichols was personal staff for defense and security affairs in the United States Senate to the late Sen. John Heinz of Pennsylvania and served as a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. His current project is on the reform of nuclear strategy and the reduction of international nuclear inventories.

YUN ZHOU is a postdoctoral nuclear security fellow funded by the Stanton Foundation. Her research focuses on the requirements and consequences—for nuclear safety, security, and nonproliferation—of a major expansion of nuclear energy in China and elsewhere around the world.

Project on Managing the Atom

TOM BIELEFELD is pursuing a doctorate in physics with the University of Bremen and expects to complete his dissertation on nuclear terrorism: physics issues in prevention and preparedness. His research focuses on nuclear security and terrorism as well as on nuclear proliferation. More broadly, his interests are in the science and technology aspects of security policy. In addition to his International Security Program fellowship, he is also a research affiliate with the Science, Technology, and Global Security working group at MIT.

Energy Technology Innovation Policy (ETIP) research group

MELISSA CHAN is completing her Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University in the engineering and public policy department with a focus on the financial and environmental costs of mining coal in the U.S.  Her research includes a life-cycle analysis of the hydrogen energy infrastructure and analysis of policies to support carbon sequestration in the U.S. and abroad. She conducts research under on the Center's Energy Research, Development, Demonstration, & Deployment (ERD3) Policy project.

CHARLES (SKUK) JONES is an adjunct professor at UMass Boston's department of management and marketing and is completing his Ph.D. on the renewable energy industry in Massachusetts at UMass Boston. In addition to 10 years in the U.S. Navy as an engineer on nuclear submarines, he has worked at MIT on systems dynamics and on projects such as U.S. business strategies regarding climate change.  His research focuses on the Center's Energy Research, Development, Demonstration, & Deployment (ERD3) Policy project.

RUUD KEMPENER has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and has worked on energy policy issues in the Netherlands, Australia, South Africa, and the UK. His research interests include: long-term energy and climate change policy, bioenergy networks, personal carbon trading, emissions trading schemes, and the development of quantitative multi-scale (or agent-based) models to explore long-term business and policy strategies for sustainable development. At the Belfer Center, he is working on the development of a framework for international cooperation between the U.S. government, the BRIMCS countries, and other OECD countries on energy technology innovation policy—as part of the Center's Energy Research, Development, Demonstration, & Deployment (ERD3) Policy project.

AUDREY LEE is an economist in the office of policy and international affairs at the U.S. department of energy. Her work focuses on economic and policy analysis of energy and climate change policies, using a variety of models and covering an extensive array of technologies. Audrey earned a B.S. in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology and a M.A. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University. Her research is part of the Center's Energy Research, Development, Demonstration, & Deployment (ERD3) Policy project.

NATHANIEL LOGAR studies institutional policies for useable science, policies for integrating user needs into decision processes, and partnerships between federal actors and private entities. Formerly a postdoctoral associate at Arizona State University's Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes, he worked on a project called "Advancing Science Policy for Sustainability."  He conducted his Ph.D. research at the University of Colorado's Center for Science & Technology Policy Research.