SSP News
July 1, 2025
The Center for Nuclear Security Policy (CNSP) is pleased to announce that Dr. Austin Long has joined CNSP as a Senior Nuclear Fellow.
The Center for Nuclear Security Policy (CNSP) within MIT’s Security Studies Program (SSP) is pleased to announce that Dr. Austin Long has joined CNSP as a Senior Nuclear Fellow.
From October 2022 to June 2025, Long served as the Joint Staff deputy director, Strategic Stability Strategy, Plans and Policy Directorate. In that role, Long was responsible for the formulation of Joint Staff positions and recommendations regarding strategy, plans and policy for strategic deterrence, space, cyberspace, electromagnetic spectrum operations, nuclear missile defense, countering weapons of mass destruction, subsea and seabed warfare, arms control, and other international negotiations. Previously, he was vice deputy director for strategic stability.
Prior to joining the Joint Staff, Long was a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation and an associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International Public Affairs. He was an analyst and adviser to the US military in Iraq (2007-08) and Afghanistan (2011 and 2013). In 2014-15, he was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in Nuclear Security, serving in the Joint Staff J5.
“We are beyond thrilled for Austin to return to the SSP and CNSP family, where he did his PhD,” said CNSP Director Vipin Narang. “He is a world-renowned scholar and government official with intimate knowledge of strategic capabilities and policy. He will be a tremendous asset to our faculty, students, and fellows.”
Long added, “I am excited to join CNSP and help develop the next generation of thinkers on nuclear policy, strategy, and operations. I also look forward to getting back to research on topics such as the theoretical and empirical basis of the nuclear revolution as well as US nuclear strategy and force structure."
Long received his BS from the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and his PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.