Skip to main content
Support
Article

NPIHP Announces 2013 SHAFR Summer Institute Participants

NPIHP is pleased to announce the participants for the 2013 SHAFR Summer Institute on the International History of Nuclear Weapons

NPIHP Announces 2013 SHAFR Summer Institute Participants

NPIHP is pleased to announce the participants in the 2013 SHAFR Summer Institute on the International History of Nuclear Weapons at the Wilson Center on 14-19 June, 2013. These 18 promising scholars will gather for an intensive overview of the global history of nuclear weapons through seminars led by some of the world’s leading nuclear historians. Instructors will include Martin Sherwin (Wilson Center / George Mason University), and NPIHP Co-Directors Lepoldo Nuti (University of Roma Tre) and Christian Ostermann (Wilson Center), as well as other leading figures in the field.

Mark Bell is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from St. Anne's College, Oxford, and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow. His research on nuclear issues focuses on the effects of nuclear weapons on foreign policy and on the causes and consequences of variation in the institutional structures used to pursue nuclear weapons. Broader research interests include U.S. and British foreign policy and grand strategy, and quantitative political methodology. He has previously worked for Sen. John Kerry, the United Nations, and the British think tank CentreForum.

James Cameron is currently completing his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge on the development of U.S. ballistic missile defense policy from 1961 to 1972, concentrating on the system’s transformation from a weapon into a bargaining chip at the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. After earning his B.A. in History from Cambridge and M.Phil. in Russian and East European Studies from Oxford, he worked as a business consultant specializing in Russia and Eastern Europe. He was a Fox International Fellow at Yale University for the academic year 2010-11.

Alexandre Debs is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is interested in the politics of weak institutions. His current projects look at the causes of international conflict, nuclear proliferation, and democratization. His previous work has appeared or is forthcoming in the American Political Science Review, the Economics of Peace and Security Journal, International Organization, the Journal of the History of Economic Thought, and the Quarterly Journal of Political Science. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T., an M.Phil. in Economic and Social History from Oxford University and a B.Sc. in Economics and Mathematics from Universite de Montreal.

Hassan Elbahtimy successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis last December on Egypt’s nuclear policy 1955-1968. Hassan’s research drew on primary materials from Egypt, the US, the UK and the UN to reconstruct a narrative on a formative period in Egypt’s nuclear history. Hassan holds an M.B.B.Ch from Cairo University, an International Relations Graduate Diploma from American University in Cairo and an MA in Science and Security from War Studies Department, Kings College London. In 2006, he was awarded the United Nations Disarmament Fellowship. Hassan also worked with VERTIC on nuclear warhead dismantlement verification regimes. He was a teaching assistant at Kings College in 2009/2010 and led several seminars in the College since. Hassan’s research interests include cases of nuclear restraint and reversal, history of multilateralism in the nuclear field and how the third world reacted to the nuclear age.

Benjamin P. Greene is an Assistant Professor of History at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Ben’s research focuses on American foreign relations during the Cold War, with a special emphasis on nuclear history. He is interested in developing a broadly conceived course on nuclear history that will examine the strategic, cultural, economic, and environmental implications of the nuclear arms race. Ben’s future research interests include an examination of the scientific disputes and the strategic controversies surrounding SDI and President Reagan’s arms control initiatives. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and is the author of Eisenhower, Science Advice, and the Nuclear Test-Ban Debate, 1945-1963. His other publications include numerous articles and book reviews on topics related to American foreign relations that range from American exceptionalism to the Vietnam War. A former Army officer, Ben has previously taught history at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.

Fintan Hoey is an Assistant Professor of History at Franklin College, Switzerland and has recently completed a Ph.D. dissertation on U.S.-Japanese diplomatic and security relations during the tenure of Satō Eisaku, Prime Minister of Japan, 1964-1972 at University College Dublin, Ireland. Using recently released material from the Japanese Foreign Ministry Archive as well as U.S. archival material and Satō’s diary, this work, now being prepared for publication, presents a more informed and nuanced account of U.S.-Japanese security relations in this period and argues that Satō’s foreign policy was not motivated by a slavish adherence to Washington but from a realist appraisal of Japan’s security needs. During this period the question of nuclear weapons loomed large both on the question of an independent Japanese deterrent and the role of US nuclear weapons in the alliance. This led to a highly sensitive and secret agreement between the two governments on the deployment of US nuclear weapons which has gradually come to light in the intervening years.
Hoey’s research interests include Asian (particularly Japanese) history, international relations, U.S.-Japanese relations, the Cold War in Asia and American diplomatic history. Hoey and Dr. Peter Mauch are currently co-editing a special edition of Japanese Studies on Japan’s Cold War. Dr. Hoey has held teaching appointments at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland and National University of Ireland, Maynooth and was a Monbushō scholar at the University of Kyoto and a Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Fellow at Rikkyō University, Tokyo.

Jonathan R. Hunt is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin and a MacArthur Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. He is also an Eisenhower/Roberts Graduate Fellow of the Eisenhower Institute. His doctoral thesis, “Power and Prohibition: The United States, Nuclear Nonproliferation, and the World, 1945-1970,” recounts how US nuclear diplomacy evolved amid the fluctuations of the Cold War, the turbulence of decolonization, and the rise of global governance. In contrast to prior explanations of the nuclear nonproliferation regime’s origins, his interpretation highlights the power of utopian and dystopian ideas, the clash of US and French strategic nuclear cultures, and the power balances and common principles shaping multilateral talks for a nuclear nonproliferation treaty. Jonathan has previously benefited from fellowships from the U.S. Department of Education, the George C. Marshall Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He has published articles and op-eds in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Not Even Past, and The Huffington Post.

Robert E. Hunter earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2008. His dissertation title was “Fingers on the Button: American Atomic Policy in Mainstream Film, Radio and Television, 1945-1960. He is currently an adjunct instructor in the social science department at Triton College in River Grove, IL.

Laura Lisbeth Iandola is finishing her dissertation at Northern Illinois University’s History Department and Center for Southeast Asian Studies, under the supervision of Kenton Clymer. Her thesis, “Nuclear Fueled: Regime Change in Sukarno’s Indonesia and the Global Politics of Nuclear Nationalism,” explores Indonesia’s advocacy of nuclear proliferation during 1964-1965, arguing that the United States took very seriously Sukarno’s threat to explode a nuclear weapon in October 1965. Laura also seeks to illuminate North-South differences on nuclear proliferation, while exposing conflicts over proliferation within the global south.
Laura’s other research projects/interests include nuclear imaginaries, particularly the history of nuclear narratives in commercial gaming; a study of Indonesian-Cuban relations in the mid-1960s, focusing on nuclear issues; the Cuban missile crisis and American memory; and the role of photography in the Indonesian genocide of 1965.
Laura majored in Chinese Studies at Beloit College; took her first M.A. in political science at the University of Toronto, focusing on international security under Franklyn Griffiths; and studied Indonesian at Universitas Hasanuddin in Makassar.

Zachary M. Matusheski is a Brandeis University Ph.D. student currently writing his dissertation “To the Brink of War: East Asian Crises and the Creation of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s ‘New Look’” under the guidance of Professors David Engerman and David Hackett Fischer. The project seeks to measure the role East Asian crises had on Eisenhower’s foreign policy creation and execution. It also examines changes in Sino-American relations. The role military advice played in 1950s U.S. foreign policy creation is also central. Beyond his dissertation, Zachary is fascinated by the role the military plays in the American political process. He is also intrigued by the history of nuclear deterrence in Northeast Asia. Within American history, his favorite period is 1945-1973. His work has been generously supported by the Crown Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the George C. Marshall Foundation, the U.S. Army Military History Institute, and other organizations. In 2012, the chapter of his dissertation on the Korean War won first prize in the Cold War Essay Contest administered by the John A. Adams 71’ Center for Military History and Strategic Analysis at the Virginia Military Institute. When he isn't studying history, Zachary enjoys learning about the opera and keeping up with the latest innovations in the car industry. 

Andrea O’Brien received her Ph.D. in history from George Washington University in August 2012. She specializes in U.S. diplomatic and cold war history and am currently a postdoctoral fellow at East Tennessee State University. Dr. O’Brien’s research interests lie primarily in the intersection of diplomatic and social history during the early cold war period. Her dissertation, “‘Democracy’s Best Ambassadors’: Everyday American-German Encounters and U.S. Foreign Policy in Occupied Germany, 1945-1949” traces the influence that American soldiers’ daily interactions with Germans had on diplomatic and military decision-making, arguing that the earliest signs of American-German rapprochement were social and cultural, far before political or cold war actions openly proclaimed a burgeoning alliance between the former enemies. While Andrea’s research does not center on nuclear history, she teaches courses on twentieth century U.S. history, U.S. foreign relations, and the international history of the cold war. Andrea is particularly eager to strengthen her discussion of the history of nuclear weapons in her existing courses and develop a new course on the world in the atomic age through participation in this institute.

Allen Pietrobon is pursuing his Ph.D. in history at American University in Washington, D.C. Since 2011 he has served as the Assistant Director of Research at the Nuclear Studies Institute. His research focuses on Cold War diplomacy, specifically the role that public intellectuals, non-state actors and “citizen-diplomats” played in the formation of nuclear weapons policies.

Or Rabinowitz is an Israeli Chevening Scholar and a research associate at the Centre for Science and Security Studies in London. Dr Rabinowitz recently graduated from the War Studies Department at King’s College, London, where she wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on Washington’s attempts to prevent second generation proliferators from conducting nuclear tests during the Cold War. The manuscript was accepted for publication by Oxford University Press and the book is expected to available in 2014. Further fields of interests include the Middle East and American-Israeli relations.

S. Samuel C. Rajiv is Associate Fellow, Nuclear and Arms Control Centre, Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi. At IDSA, which is a partner institution of NPIHP, he is a member of the Nuclear History Project team. Prior to joining IDSA in 2006, he worked at the publication India’s National Security Annual Review from 2002-2005 including as an Assistant Editor and was a Visiting Research Scholar at the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Centre for Strategic Studies, Israel during 2005-06. His research interests include nuclear dynamics in South Asia, the Iran nuclear issue, India-Israel ties, and US foreign policy, specifically its grand strategic choices.

Paul Rubinson is Assistant Professor of History at Bridgewater State University. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 and served as a predoctoral fellow at Yale University International Security Studies. His research interests focus on the relationship between scientists and U.S. foreign relations, including opposition to the arms race and defense of human rights. He is currently at work on a book manuscript that investigates scientists’ efforts to influence U.S. nuclear policy during the Cold War; his next project will analyze scientists’ transition from advocates of nuclear disarmament into human rights activists during the 1970s and 1980s. His articles have appeared in Diplomatic History and Cold War History as well as edited collections on the Cold War and international human rights. Originally from Baltimore, MD, Paul currently lives under three feet of snow in Boston, MA.

Sonja Schmid is an assistant professor in the Department of Science and Technology in Society at Virginia Tech. After receiving her Ph.D. in Science & Technology Studies from Cornell in 2005 she spent two years at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, and one year at the James Martin Institute for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey on postdoctoral fellowships. Her research focuses on nuclear safety in historical, cultural, and institutional perspective, as well as on complex decision-making processes at the interface between science, technology, and the state. In her book (under contract with MIT Press) she leverages sources from Russian archives and narrative interviews with Russian nuclear specialists to shed new light on reactor design choices for the Soviet nuclear power industry. More recently, she has done preliminary research on nuclear energy in the European Union, on proposals for Small Modular Reactors, and – post-Fukushima – on the challenges of internationalizing an effective response to nuclear emergencies.

Megan K. Sethi is a U.S. Historian and an Adjunct Professor at Cal Poly Pomona. She received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. She completed her dissertation, entitled "'To Secure the Benefits of Science to the General Welfare': The Scientists' Movement and the American Public during the Cold War, 1945-1960," in 2007. Her work examines the grassroots political activism of scientists involved in groups devoted to promoting nuclear arms control. Her most recent article, “Information, Education, and Indoctrination: The Federation of American Scientists and Public Communication Strategies in the Atomic Age,” was published in Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences in 2012. In 2007-2008, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor with the History of Science, Technology and Medicine Program at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus, and has taught courses at California State University, Northridge, California State University, Los Angeles, California State University, San Bernardino, and UCLA. She has been the recipient of an NSF Dissertation Research Improvement Grant as well as a UCLA Summer Research Mentorship Fellowship.

Tong Zhao is a PhD candidate in science, technology, and international affairs at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also a graduate research assistant at the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy at Georgia Tech and a Nonresident WSD-Handa Fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS. He serves on the Executive Board of International Student/Young Pugwash (ISYP) and was an intern policy analyst at the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. His work and publications deal with issues of nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation, missile defense, missile proliferation, regional strategic stability, and China’s security policy. He received his B.S. in physics and M.A. in international affair from Tsinghua University in China. He is currently working under the Program on Strategic Stability Evaluation on U.S.-China nuclear disarmament cooperation and trust-building.

Related Program

Nuclear Proliferation International History Project

The Nuclear Proliferation International History Project is a global network of individuals and institutions engaged in the study of international nuclear history through archival documents, oral history interviews, and other empirical sources. At the Wilson Center, it is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more