Predoctoral Fellows

Apply to the Predoctoral Fellowship Program 

Current Postdoctoral Fellow(s)

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Samuel Leiter

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Samuel Leiter is a Pre-Doctoral Fellow for the 2026-27 academic year. He is a Political Science Ph.D. Candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology specializing in international relations and security studies. His dissertation research examines the politics of weapons acquisition, specifically how changes to threat assessments and supplier reliability affect the buy-or-build decision using evidence from Japan. During the pre-doctoral fellowship, he is revising his dissertation and testing its generalizability with case studies of Israel and South Korea. He has co-authored research on tripwire deterrence that is forthcoming in the Journal of Strategic Studies and on Japan's 2022 strategic shift in The Washington Quarterly. He previously conducted research to support local government reform in Chicago and US foreign policy with the RAND Corporation. He is proficient in Japanese.

2025-2026

Drew A. Hogan, PhD candidate in political science at the University of Minnesota

2024-2025

Suzanne Freeman, Ph.D. candidate in the MIT Political Science Department

2023-2024

Justin Casey, PhD Candidate in Government at Georgetown University and Visiting Instructor in Political Science at Swarthmore College.

Siu Hei Wong,  Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University’s Department of Politics.

2022-2023

Eun A Jo, PhD Candidate in the Government Department at Cornell University

John Minnich, PhD candidate in International Relations and Comparative Politics at MIT

2021-2022

Andrew Goodhart, Ohio State University

Aidan Milliff, MIT

2020-2021

Rachel Tecott, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, MIT

Danielle Villa, Ph.D. Candidate, Emory University

2019-2020

Nicholas Anderson, ISCS Visiting Scholar, Yale University

Renanah Miles-Joyce, Post-doctoral fellow in Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft, Harvard Kennedy School and MIT

Before 2020

2018-2019

Tim McDonnell, Center for Naval Analyses (CAN)

Travis Sharp, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA)

DoYoung Lee

2017-2018

Rush Doshi, Brookings Institution, Director of China Strategy Initiative

Binn Cho, The College of New Jersey, Dept. of Political Science

Jennifer Spindel, University of New Hampshire, Dept. of Political Science

2016-2017

John-Michael Arnold, GWU, Visiting Professor of Political Science

Ketian Zhang, George Mason University, Schar School of Policy and Government

2015-2016

Meredith Blank, U.S. Government

Alex Worsnop, University of Maryland, School of Public Policy

2014-2015

Daniel Krcmaric, Northwestern University, Dept. of Political Science

Joseph Torigian, American University, School of International Service

2013-2014

Olivier Henripin, Loyola, Dept. of Political Science

Sameer Lalwani, Stimson Center, Director, South Asia Program

2012-2013

Austin Carson, University of Chicago, Dept. of Political Science

Lindsey O’Rourke, Boston College, Dept. of Political Science

Joshua Shifrinson, Boston University, Pardee School of Global Studies