2017-18

Binn is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on crisis escalation, the coercive uses of military force, and security in the Asia-Pacific. His dissertation explains unwanted crisis escalation and war with a novel theory of provocation. Using survey experiments, formal game-theoretic models, and case studies involving China, his dissertation clarifies and demonstrates the significance of an under appreciated causal pathway to crisis escalation and conflict. Binn holds an M.A. in Political Science from Columbia University, an M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and a B.Sc. in Government and Economics from the London School of Economics.

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Rush Doshi is a PhD candidate and Raymond Vernon Fellow in Harvard’s PhD program in Government. His doctoral work focuses on explaining variation in Chinese post-Cold War grand strategy. Doshi’s main research interests include Chinese and Indian foreign policy, he is proficient in Mandarin and Hindi, and his work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The National Interest, and The Hill, among other publications. Most recently, Doshi was a member of the Asia Policy Working Group for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Previously, he was an analyst at Long Term Strategy Group where he focused on Asia-Pacific security issues; prior to that, he researched international economic issues as an analyst at Rock Creek Global Advisors, consulted for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, participated in various studies at the Naval War College, and was an Arthur Liman Fellow at the Department of State. Doshi was a Fulbright fellow in China for one year where he researched Sino-Indian relations. He graduated from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School (Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude) with a minor in East Asian Studies.

Jooeun Kim is the Jill Hopper Memorial fellow at Georgetown University for 2017-18. Through the fellowship, she is an instructor at the Government Department and will teach History and Politics of Nuclear Proliferation in Spring 2018. She is completing her PhD in international relations at Georgetown University’s Department of Government. She studies credibility, alliance management, and nuclear proliferation within military alliances. Her dissertation examines the credibility of a guarantor ally as the source of a protected ally’s nuclear decisions, through analyzing allies’ behaviors during international crises. She completed an MA in Government at Georgetown University, an MA in International Affairs at the George Washington University, and a BA in Political Science at Waseda University, Japan. She has previously been a nuclear security predoctoral fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. She speaks Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Outside of her dissertation writing, she is a certified yoga instructor and enjoys sculling on the Potomac River.

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Jennifer Spindel is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. Her research areas include foreign policy, grand strategy, and international security. Jen’s dissertation uses archival method and fieldwork at international weapons exhibitions to examine the foreign policy effects of conventional weapon transfers. She held the 2016-2017 Robert T. Holt Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship at the University of Minnesota, and her work has been supported by the Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation and the Kathryn W. Davis Foundation. She has previous research experience in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and with Mines Action Canada in Ottawa, Canada. Jen holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. in peace and conflict studies from Colgate University.

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Frances Yaping Wang is a PhD candidate at the University of Virginia in Political Science and a Minerva-USIP Peace Scholar. She studies International Security and Comparative Politics, with a focus on territorial disputes, diplomatic crisis, foreign policy and politics of authoritarian and post-Communist states, public opinion and nationalism, and international relations of East Asia. Her dissertation, entitled “The Dog that Barks: State Propaganda Campaigns on Territorial Disputes,” examines the motivations and conditions when authoritarian states allow, promote, or even create media coverage of a foreign dispute, using primary sources from archives and interviews in China and Vietnam as well as computer-assisted text analysis of People’s Daily. Her research has been supported by the Albert Gallatin Research Fellowship, Dumas Malone Research Fellowship, Sally and Bruce Nelson Travel Grant, and Quandt International Research Fund, among others. She is also Senior Editor at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Wang holds a joint Master’s degree in Comparative Politics and International Affairs from George Washington University and National University of Singapore.

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Rubina Waseem is a doctoral candidate in Strategic Studies at the National Defence University, Islamabad, where she is a lecturer. Her research interest includes, nuclear export control regime, nuclear proliferation issues, international security and strategic studies issues. Rubina’s dissertation examines the possible way forward to accommodate the non-NPT nuclear weapon states in export control mechanisms so that these states become legally obligated to play constructive role in nuclear non-proliferation efforts being pursued at the global level in order to attain international security environment. Rubina has a strong background of research & training in the field of Defense & Strategic Studies; five years of teaching and research experience in the renowned universities of the capital city of Pakistan. She holds M.Phil and M.Sc degree in Defence and Strategic Studies from Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad.

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Ryan is a Ph.D. student in public policy at George Washington University and a reserve officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. He received his master’s degree in Security Policy Studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs and his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Utah. Ryan’s research interests revolve around issues of international security, U.S. defense policy, and research methodology. His dissertation will examine the influence of logistics on military effectiveness and try to identify the contribution of logistics relative to other important factors. Before graduate school, Ryan spent more than five years on active duty as a supply officer in the Marine Corps and deployed overseas twice.

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Daniel Jacobs is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at The George Washington University and a research assistant at the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs. His current research interests include the strategic benefits of material and ideational vulnerability, autocratic accountability, and theories of grand strategic success. Daniel holds an M.A. (Hons) in International Relations from the University of Chicago and a B.A.(Hons) in Political Science from McGill University. When not studying international relations, Daniel is an aspiring barbecue pitmaster and canoe builder/woodworker.

Michael Joseph is a Ph.D. student in political science at George Washington University. His research uses formal insights to explore how states determine the extent of each other’s motives and its consequences for war, trade and peace. He is passionate about the role of bad actors in international politics and is interested in how Western powers can single these states out and manage their bad behavior. His research draws from six years’ experience working in Iraq, Jordan and the United States in various analytical roles. In his spare time, he makes ice cream and plays risk.

Alexander is a PhD student in Political Science at the George Washington University. He previously earned his MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago and BA in Political Science from Williams College. His research interests include the effect of nuclear weapons on conflict, political ambition, and strategic choice in declining powers.

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Bryce Loidolt is a doctoral student in political science at George Washington University and an adjunct researcher at the RAND Corporation. He has also served as adjunct faculty at National Defense University at Fort Bragg, NC. His research focuses on terrorism and counterterrorism, with a current interest in the relationship between security force assistance and recipient combat effectiveness. At RAND, he has recently assisted in coordinating and synthesizing findings from advanced quantitative models and qualitative analytic tools to inform U.S. strategy against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Bryce also worked as an adviser to Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan and conducted field research in Egypt and Yemen. Through Arabic and English language research, Bryce’s work has appeared as RAND Corporation monographs and in scholarly journals such as Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Terrorism and Political Violence. A Southern California native, Bryce received his B.A. in Middle East Studies from Middlebury College and his M.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Brian Radzinsky is a PhD candidate in the political science department at the George Washington University. His research focuses on the intersection of nuclear strategy, organizational behavior, and emerging technologies. His dissertation examines the effects of strategic competition and civilian technological innovation on the development of nuclear command and control systems in the United States, Russia, and China. He’s also served as a predoctoral researcher at the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a doctoral fellow with the Elliott School’s Nuclear Security Working Group. Previously, he managed cooperative nuclear security projects at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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