Welcome!
I’m an Associate Professor of National Security at the National Defense University and serve as Course Director for National Security Strategy & Policy at the Eisenhower School. I have also been a Visiting Scholar with Harvard University’s Weatherhead Scholars Program and Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS).
In my research, I seek to answer questions crucial for both theory and policy, specifically regarding international security, armed conflict, and economic development.
My first book, The Power of Dependence: NATO-UN Cooperation in Crisis Management (Oxford University Press, 2015), analyzes the dynamic, often dysfunctional relationship between NATO and the UN in major post-Cold War conflicts.
I’m currently completing my second book, Islands of Stability. It explores how relatively peaceful regions emerge and persist in war-torn countries. The book leverages interviews with local elites in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia, an original dataset on governors in these countries, and statistical estimations. Islands of Stability offers a new, groundbreaking perspective on fragile states, highlighting that the careful promotion of subnational solutions to insecurity and poverty provides an avenue for more successful international engagement with critical regions of the world. A related, peer-reviewed article, “Bounded Rule and Regional Stability in Fragile States,” was published by the Journal of Politics in 2024.
In 2025, I was awarded the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Medal by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for my contributions to the National Defense University. Previously, I was a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University and an Assistant Professor of Practice at New York University (NYU) in Abu Dhabi. I have also been a visiting researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), the World Bank’s Global Center on Conflict, Security, and Development in Nairobi, and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).