Announcing the 2017 Nuclear Boot Camp Participants

NPIHP’s summer 2017 Nuclear History Boot Camp will be hosted by the University of Roma Tre and the Machiavelli Center for Cold War Studies (CIMA) for ten days, June 15th-June 25th. Aimed at building a new generation of experts on the international history of nuclear weapons, the seventh-annual Nuclear History Boot Camp is an initiative of the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project (NPIHP) and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This Year's Students

Somayeh Bahrami was born in Isfahan. She is a MA graduate from the Allameh Tabataba’i University (ATU) where she majored in International Relations and minored in Middle East Studies. She is a freelance researcher and has a number of clients including the ATU. As an active discussant, she participated in many international conferences and forums around the world held by prominent research centers such as PRIO and Jülich Forschungszentrum. Her research interests include theories of International Relations, security approaches, Middle East crises and peace studies.

Debak Das is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the Department of Government, Cornell University. He completed his M.Phil. in Diplomacy and Disarmament, and M.A. in International Relations at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has formerly held research positions at Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies and Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation, New Delhi. His research interests include advancements in military technology, ballistic missile defense, and strategic and nuclear decision-making in South Asia.

Anna Elizabeth Dvorak is a PhD Candidate in History of Science at Oregon State University. Her dissertation focuses on the role of science and scientists in policy decisions in the early Cold War through the work of Leo Szilard and others. Szilard's fictional works connect to her interest in how science is portrayed in literature and how this critiques the society in which it was created.

Monica Emond is a PhD candidate at the School of Political Studies at University of Ottawa in Canada. Her doctoral research examines the philosophical and political significance of nuclear technology development in reshaping the political subject and transforming the perception of space in the western world. Monica obtained a master’s degree in Political Sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2008. She has presented her research in several national and international conferences in Canada and France. She is also a participant in the musical / art project Landscape of Emergency.

Iryna Iarema’s interest in the nuclear field began with her project management experience in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Ukraine, where she developed and implemented projects aimed at enhancing radiological security in Ukraine and at its borders. In September 2016, as a winner of a Chevening scholarship, Iryna completed her MA in International Peace and Security at King’s College London, where her interests expanded to nuclear security and seeking solutions to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Since then, Iryna has written for and participated in a number of thematical forums related to WMD non-proliferation, nuclear security and safeguards, and exploring the principles of nuclear security culture. From September to December 2016, Iryna conducted research at the Brookhaven National Laboratory aimed at studying challenges and drivers for reporting security breaches in the nuclear and radiological sector. Iryna is a certified nuclear security professional by the World Institute for Nuclear Security.

Galen Jackson is the Stanley Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellow in the Political Science Department at Williams College where he teaches courses in international relations, American foreign policy, and leadership. Prior to coming to Williams, he received a Ph.D. in political science from UCLA in 2016 and during the 2015-2016 academic year, he was a Stanton Nuclear Security fellow at MIT. He earned an M.A. in international relations from the University of Chicago in 2010 and a B.A. in history and political science from Williams College in 2009. His research interests include international security, nuclear security studies, U.S. foreign relations, the domestic sources of foreign policy, leadership and strategic decision-making, and the geopolitics of energy. When he is out of the office, he can usually be found playing basketball, rock climbing, or hiking.

Baruch Malewich holds an MPhil in International Relations and Politics from the University of Cambridge and a BA in Government from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel. A former intelligence officer and a current peace activist, Baruch Malewich focuses on the intersection of weapon technology and ethics. He wrote his MPhil dissertation on the moral worlds of nuclear weapon designers, focusing on the work of philosohper Günther Anders; he is currently looking to expand this work under the premise of a PhD program.

Dennis Romberg graduated in 2011 from the University of Münster with a degree in Modern and Contemporary History and Minors in Political Science and Romance Languages. After completion of his studies he conducted research on nuclear technology exports as research associate at the Department of History of International Relations at the University of Münster. From 2012 to 2014, he worked as an expert and editor at various NGOs concerned with digital rights and consumer protection online. He campaigned for the European Data Protection Reform. At present, he is a PhD Student at the University of Münster, researching German policy of nuclear exports and nuclear technology co-operations from 1970 to 1979. His academic interests revolve around digital rights issues, nuclear history, energy issues, and the history of proliferation of atomic weapons.

Haleema Saadia is working as an Assistant Director in the Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs Branch of Strategic Plans Division, Pakistan. She gives policy input on strategic affairs including Pakistan’s nuclear doctrinal issues, its non-proliferation policy, international and regional arms control, non-proliferation of WMDs and nuclear safety and security. She has obtained M.Sc. and M.Phil. degrees in Defence and Strategic Studies from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. Her Masters dissertation was on “India-US Nuclear Deal: Implications for Pakistan” while her MPhil dissertation focused on “Multilateralism in the Conference on Disarmament”. She was awarded Chancellor’s Medal by the President of Pakistan and Vice-Chancellor’s Medal by Quaid-i-Azam University in 2013 in recognition of her academic credentials. Her areas of interest include nuclear non-proliferation, nuclear policies of India and Pakistan, deterrence, nuclear strategy, peaceful applications of nuclear energy and arms control and disarmament

Yevgen Sautin is pursuing a Ph.D. in modern Chinese history at the University of Cambridge where he is a Gates Scholar. Prior to Cambridge, Mr. Sautin was a David L. Boren Fellow at the National Taiwan University and a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He also worked in the finance sector and received an M.A. from the University of Chicago. Yevgen speaks and reads Chinese and Russian. Yevgen often provides commentary on East Asian security and politics for journals and newspapers such as The National Interest and Jamestown's China Brief. When not working, Yevgen enjoys traveling, rowing, and being a foodie.

Alice Testa is currently completing her M.A. in International Relations at Roma Tre University. As part of her M.A. thesis on "The US NATO policy during the Obama administration", she is presently conducting interviews in Washington DC. In the wider context of her thesis, she is seeking to analyze the evolution of extended deterrence in NATO after the end of the Cold War, particularly during the Obama administration. Her interests include history of international relations, political economy and diplomacy. Alice has also been an intern at the Embassy of Poland in Rome. She likes learning languages and living in international environments and is studying English, German and Arabic.

 Thai Vinh Tran is a PhD candidate in Comparative Asian Studies at National University of Singapore (NUS). She holds a Bachelor's (Hons) and Master's degrees in History from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) in Ho Chi Minh City (part of Vietnam National University). Prior to joining NUS, she worked as a teaching assistant and lecturer in the USSH History Department.

Her research interests are diverse. She is now focusing on Vietnamese Studies and the roles of science and technology in modernization and nation building. Her PhD dissertation examines and compares the Cold War Atoms for Peace programs of the Republic of Vietnam and the Republic of Korea in relation to their nation building. Through this project, she will explore how these post-colonial states responded and adapted to American impacts and took initiative to pursue their own goals in their nuclear programs and nation building.

Joseph Torigian is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation interested in Chinese, Russian, and North Korean politics and foreign policy. Soon he will become an assistant professor in Emerging Powers at the School of International Service at American University. His current research uses archival material to investigate the nature of authority at the elite level in Leninist regimes. Previously, Joseph worked at the Council on Foreign Relations and studied China's policies towards Central Asia as a Fulbright Scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai. He has conducted dissertation research at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at George Washington University. He received a BA in Political Science at the University of Michigan and a Ph.D in Political Science at MIT. Joseph speaks Chinese and Russian.

Raymond Wang is a MA candidate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His research interests include deterrence in the Asia-Pacific region, customary international law, and applying open source intelligence techniques to nonproliferation issues. He enjoys fencing and discovering new music on Spotify.

Juping Zhang is a master's degree student in Cold War History at the Center for Cold War International History Studies, East China Normal University, Shanghai. She is interested in the political implications of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident in the USSR, especially in the risk communication between the Soviet government, its people and foreign governments. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Russian Language, Culture and History from Xiamen University.