Tag: Visiting Scholar

Chen Wang is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Virginia specializing in International Relations. His research focuses on leaders’ reputation-building, diplomacy and foreign public opinion, terrorism, and China’s foreign policy. His dissertation examines under what conditions leadership turnovers tend to increase the risk of interstate conflicts. He is also completing a book manuscript (with Philip Potter) that examines how competing priorities facing the Chinese government shape its responses to political violence in Xinjiang. His research has been supported by the Quantitative Collaborative at the University of Virginia and the Quandt Fund for International Research. His work is forthcoming in the British Journal of Political Science.  He received B.A. in Economics and M.A. in International Economics from the University of International Relations, Beijing and M.S. in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Danielle Villa is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Emory University. Her research focuses on conflict management and conflict dynamics. Danielle’s dissertation explores the role of host governments in United Nations peacekeeping operations; she examines how the need for government consent influences subnational peacekeeper deployments and peacekeeper effectiveness, with a regional focus on African civil wars. Danielle also has ongoing research projects about violence against civilians, foreign-imposed regime change, pro-government militias, and more. She holds an M.A. in Political Science from Emory University and a B.A. from Marist College. For more information on Danielle’s research, please visit daniellevilla.com.

Rachel Tecott is a PhD candidate in Political Science at MIT. Her research focuses on international security, military strategy, civil-military relations, and decision-making processes. Her dissertation examines US efforts to build partner militaries, and focuses specifically on the evolution of the US Army’s efforts to cajole, persuade, and push reticent political and military leaders of partner nations to take the steps necessary to improve their militaries. Rachel is also a co-founder and organizer of the Future Strategy Forum. Before MIT, Rachel studied nuclear proliferation and worked in political risk consulting. She holds a B.A. (Honors) from Wesleyan University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Paul Orner is a Ph.D candidate at the University of Southern California and an Adjunct Researcher at the RAND Corporation. He studies how Chinese perceptions of American alliance dynamics shape territorial disputes and Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. Prior to studying at USC, Paul spent a number of years studying and working in East Asia.

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Neha Ansari is a PhD Candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, where her doctoral studies focus on International Security and the Geopolitics of the Persian Gulf and South Asia. Her dissertation studies the shift in public opinion on American drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal belt. Before joining Fletcher for her doctorate, she was a visiting researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, focusing on Pakistan’s strategic culture and the Pakistani media. At the same time, she was also a Research Consultant for the Near East and South Asia (NESA) Center at National Defense University (NDU), Washington, DC. She has consulted for Sandia National Laboratories, given presentations and briefings to numerous military-security forums, including the U.S. Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group (AWG) and the U.S. Joint Staff’s Strategic Multilayer Conference. She was a Fulbright Scholar and has also been supported by the Eisenhower Roberts Graduate Fellowship, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Bradley Foundation. She is originally from Karachi, Pakistan, where she previously worked as a journalist. She holds a Master of Arts in Law & Diplomacy (MALD) from the Fletcher School, and an M.A. and B.A. (Honors) from the University of Karachi, Pakistan.

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Nicholas Anderson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. His research focuses on territorial expansion, historical and contemporary East Asian international relations, U.S. foreign policy, and nuclear proliferation and deterrence. In the academic year 2018-2019, he was a predoctoral fellow in the International Security Program at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He has also held fellowships with the Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. His research and other writings have been published or are forthcoming in International Security, Political Science Quarterly, The Washington Quarterly, Strategic Studies Quarterly, the Australian Journal of International Affairs, and International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, among other outlets. He has an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University (2012) and a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations (2010) from the University of British Columbia.

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