Belfer Center names fellows for 2008-09

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School recently announced the following new 2008-09 research fellows. These fellows conduct research within the Belfer Center’s International Security Program/Program on Intrastate Conflict (ICP) and Project on Managing the Atom (MTA).

International Security Program/Program on Intrastate Conflict

Teresa de Almeida Cravo is a doctoral candidate at the Centre of International Studies of Cambridge University. Cravo is working on a critique of democratic transitions in post-conflict states in Africa, focusing on Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Her research includes conflict resolution, peace building, postcolonial states, democracy, and development — particularly within the African context.

Linda Kirschke is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. Kirschke’s dissertation, “Why Ruling Elites Play the Ethnic Card,” examines the rise of ethnic cleansing during periods of regime change.

Lee Seymour completed his Ph.D. at Northwestern University and Ecole des Sciences Politiques in Paris. Seymour studies the dynamics of civil wars, including factionalism, external legitimation, and the organization of insurgency. Focusing primarily on Southern Sudan and the broader Horn of Africa, he has also studied secessionist conflict in the Balkans and the Caucasus.

Paul Staniland is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science and member of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Staniland’s research examines cohesion and fragmentation in insurgent and paramilitary groups, with a focus on South Asia and Northern Ireland.

Maya Tudor is a Ph.D. candidate at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, completing a dissertation on the divergent democratization paths taken by India and Pakistan.

Sarah Zukerman is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at MIT. Zukerman holds a B.A. in international relations from Stanford University and an M.S. in development studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her dissertation analyzes variation in paramilitary groups’ postwar trajectories and ex-combatants’ reintegration success in Colombia.

International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer is a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies and in her final year as a Ph.D. student at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Braut-Hegghammer’s research focuses on theories of nuclear proliferation and the cases of Libya and Iraq.

Vipin Narang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government at Harvard, focusing on nuclear proliferation in regional powers. Narang’s dissertation explores the sources of regional power nuclear postures and their consequent effect on deterring conflict.

Thomas M. Nichols is a professor of national security affairs and former chairman of the Strategy Department at the U.S. Naval War College. He is also a former U.S. Senate staff member. Author of the recent book “Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War,” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) Nichols currently is researching the reform of nuclear strategy.

T. Negeen Pegahi is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Chicago. Pegahi’s research interests focus on international relations theory and security studies, specifically the causes and consequences of nuclear proliferation.

Elena Rodriguez-Vieitez received a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include the security implications of an increased global reliance on nuclear energy and nuclear weapons nonproliferation.

Matthew Sharp received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago where he was a graduate research fellow with the National Science Foundation, studying the growth of structure in the early universe. Previously, Sharp worked on high-energy physics experiments at Fermilab and CERN, and he is currently researching the role that technology can play in nonproliferation and disarmament verification.