Mark Bell is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. His research examines issues relating to nuclear weapons and proliferation, international relations theory, and US and British foreign policy. His first book, Nuclear Reactions: How Nuclear-Armed States Behave, examines how states change their foreign policies when they acquire nuclear weapons, was published in 2021 by Cornell University Press and won the International Studies Association Foreign Policy Analysis Section's best book award. Other work has been published in journals including International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Strategic Studies, Texas National Security Review, The Washington Quarterly, and Defence Studies, and has been funded by organizations including the Stanton Foundation, the US Air Force Academy and Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation, and the Tobin Project.
Mark holds a Ph.D in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow, and a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from St. Anne's College, Oxford University.
Contact: markstephenbell@gmail.com
Christopher Clary is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany. His research focuses on the sources of cooperation in interstate rivalries, the causes and consequences of nuclear proliferation, U.S. defense policy, and the politics of South Asia.
Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University (2015-2016), a predoctoral fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University (2014-2015), a Stanton Nuclear Security Predoctoral Fellow at the RAND Corporation (2013-2014), and a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in India (2009). Clary also served as country director for South Asian affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (2006–2009), a research associate at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California (2003–2005), and a research assistant at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. (2001–2003).
Christopher received his PhD in Political Science at MIT, MA in National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, and BA in History and International Studies from Wichita State University.
Contact: cclary@albany.edu
Fiona Cunningham is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests lie at the intersection of technology and conflict, with an empirical focus on China. Fiona’s current book project explains how and why China threatens to use space weapons, cyber attacks and conventional missiles as substitutes for nuclear threats in limited wars. Her research has been published in International Security, Security Studies, The Washington Quarterly, and elsewhere. She has received funding from the Stanton Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, and the China Confucius Studies Program.
Fiona held fellowships at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, the Belfer Center at Harvard University, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Fiona received her Ph.D. in Political Science from MIT in 2018. From 2019 to 2021, she was an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University.
Contact: fionasc@sas.upenn.edu | Website
Nicholas Miller is an Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College. His research focuses on nuclear weapons proliferation and has been published in a variety of scholarly journals, including the American Political Science Review, International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, and Security Studies. His book manuscript, Stopping the Bomb: The Sources and Effectiveness of U.S. Nonproliferation Policy, was published by Cornell University Press in 2018. Miller’s commentary on public affairs has appeared at in Foreign Affairs, Lawfare, The National Interest, Politico, War on the Rocks, and The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage.
He received his PhD in Political Science from MIT. From 2014 to 2017, he was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Brown University.
Contact: nicholas.l.miller@dartmouth.edu| Website
Reid Pauly is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Brown University and the Dean’s Assistant Professor of Nuclear Security and Policy at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. He studies nuclear proliferation and nuclear strategy, coercion, and secrecy in international politics. Pauly is the author of The Art of Coercion: Credible Threats and the Assurance Dilemma (Cornell University Press, 2025). His scholarship has also been published in International Security, International Studies Quarterly, the European Journal of International Relations, and Foreign Affairs.
Pauly earned his Ph.D. from MIT and has held fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. He is also a fellow with the Schmidt Futures International Strategy Forum.
Contact: reid_pauly@brown.edu
Rachel Whitlark is an Associate Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a Senior Fellow with the Bridging the Gap Project. Previously, she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Project on Managing the Atom and International Security Program within the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at MIT’s SSP.
Whitlark's scholarship examines nuclear proliferation, counterproliferation, and foreign policy decision-making, with a focus on the role of the individual executive in foreign and security policy, as well as on nuclear technology, nuclear proliferation, and counter-proliferation. I have regional interests in the Middle East and East Asia.
She received a PhD in Political Science from George Washington University.
Contact: rachel.whitlark@inta.gatech.edu | Website
Heather Williams is the director of the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) and a senior fellow in the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She is a member of the Defense Science Board and State Department International Security Advisory Board. She is also a Senior Associate Fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London. Before joining CSIS Dr. Williams was a visiting fellow with the Project on Managing the Atom in the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Stanton Nuclear Security fellow in the Security Studies Program at MIT. Until 2022, she was a senior lecturer (associate professor) at King’s College London, served as a specialist adviser to the House of Lords International Relations Committee, and was President of Women in International Security (WIIS) UK.
Dr. Williams has a PhD in war studies from King’s College London, an MA in security policy studies from the George Washington University, and a BA in international relations and Russian studies from Boston University.
Contact: hwwilliams@csis.org