Audrey Kurth Cronin, CMIST Director; Trustees Professor of Security and Technology

Prof. Audrey Kurth Cronin is a leading expert on emerging technologies and international security. Her research focuses on how off-the-shelf, commercially available tools—such as robotics, AI, and biotechnology—are transforming the nature of modern conflict. She examines how non-state actors adopt and adapt these technologies in ways that challenge conventional security paradigms. Her work also addresses how terrorist campaigns decline and end, with an emphasis on leadership targeting, public support erosion, and organizational breakdown. Her areas of expertise include:

• Security, Military, Terrorism 

• International Affairs

• Government Relations and Policy

Baruch Fischhoff, Howard Heinz University Professor, Department of Engineering and Public Policy

Prof. Fischhoff studies basic topics in judgment and decision making, prompted by engagement with public policy issues.  His current topics include:

• THE USABILITY OF AI AIDS, TRAUMA TRIAGE, INFECTIOUS (AND PANDEMIC) DISEASE, AND MEDICAL INFORMED CONSENT

• CLIMATE CHANGE, ELECTRIC VEHICLES, AND GLACIER PRESERVATION

Mark Kamlet, University Professor of Economics and Public Policy; Chair of the Graduate Committee; Provost Emeritus

• How to reduce the social costs and increase the benefits of technological innovation

• Polarization among U.S. political parties, media and elites

• Cost-effectiveness and resource allocation in healthcare

Ignacio Arana, Assistant Professor

Prof. Arana specializes in elite behavior by analyzing how the personality traits and other individual differences of heads of government impact executive governance. Second, he studies the consequences of variation in political institutions across countries, with an emphasis on Latin America. He also examines executive-legislative relations, informal institutions, gender and politics, and judicial politics. His research interests include:

• Heads of Government

• Political Psychology

• Comparative Political Institutions

• Latin America

Hannah Bailey, Assistant Professor

Prof. Bailey's research explores emerging technologies as both methodological tools and subjects of study, with a particular focus on their impact on the political sphere. In particular, she focuses on adapting and developing natural language processing, machine learning, and computer vision techniques to analyze how authoritarian states leverage these tools to advance political agendas. This work seeks to generate methods applicable to diverse political communication phenomena while simultaneously shedding light on the opaque political agendas of authoritarian regimes. Her current research topics include:

• Global AI governance

• Authoritarian influence campaigns

• Computational social science methods applied to political communication phenomena

Haleigh Bartos, Associate Professor of the Practice

Prof. Bartos has substantial experience working in Washington, DC to support policy and at various NGOs. Her current research interests span national security and terrorism, with a particular focus on terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa.

Justin Canfil, Assistant Professor

• International law, arms control, governance of emerging technologies

• Military use of cyber and artificial intelligence

• US and Chinese foreign policy

Jonathan Cervas, Assistant Teaching Professor

Prof. Cervas’ research interests focus on American political institutions and political representation, with particular emphasis on how inequalities in institutions result in disparities among voters. His current areas of interest include:

• Voting rights, vote dilution, and inequalities in voting

• Elections, especially election integrity, election law, and election reform

• Minority representation in electoral systems

• Gerrymandering and redistricting

John Chin, Assistant Teaching Professor

Prof. Chin's research interests are the intersection of international relations and comparative politics, with an emphasis on technologies of rebellion, authoritarian politics, and comparative democratization. His current areas of study include:

• Coups d'état, self-coups, mass uprisings, and assassinations

• Forecasting political instability

• U.S. foreign policy / democracy promotion

Molly Dunigan, Senior Lecturer

Prof. Dunigan's research focuses on the future of warfare, grand strategy, great power conflict dynamics, military privatization, outsourcing, operational contract support, civil–military relations, counterinsurgency, and maritime security. Her current areas of interest include:

• Private security contracting

• Civilian deployment

• Strategic competition

Nadiya Kostyuk, Assistant Professor 

Prof. Kostyuk's research interests lie at the intersection of international security and technology, paying particular attention to the role of cyber power in domestic and international politics. Two overarching themes guide her research: 

• the effects that cyber power has on how states conduct themselves domestically and internationally

• the causes of a state's decision to develop different manifestations of cyber power

Geoffrey McGovern, Senior Lecturer

• Asbestos litigation

• Civil law

• State judicial resourcing and management

Forrest Morgan, Senior Lecturer

Prof. Morgan’s areas of research focus on air and space power doctrine and strategy and the future of warfare. Specific topics include:

• Deterrence

• Escalation management

• Crisis stability

• Artificial intelligence

Joshua Schwartz, Assistant Professor

• What factors impact the spread of military technology around the world?

• Under what conditions does the general public support the use of force or particular military technologies?

• When is the use of military force and technology effective on the battlefield?

Daniel Silverman, Assistant Professor

• Lies and misinformation in war

• What shapes public support for violent resistance groups

Fischhoff, Baruch. Bounded Disciplines & Unbounded Problems: A Vision for Management Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025.

Silverman, Daniel. Seeing Is Disbelieving: Why People Believe Misinformation in War, and When They Know Better. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024.

Covid Crisis Group, Lessons from the COVID War: An Investigative Report.  New York, NY: Public Affairs, 2023. 

(CMIST Prof. Baruch Fischhoff, contributing author)

Chin, John J.,  Joseph Wright, and David B. Carter. Historical Dictionary of Modern Coups D’état. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022.

Cronin, Audrey Kurth. Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020. 

Dunigan, Molly. Victory for Hire: Private Security Companies' Impact on Military Effectiveness. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011.

Fischhoff, Baruch, and John Kadvany. Risk: A Very Short Introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Cronin, Audrey Kurth. How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.

Fischhoff, Baruch, Kenneth Kotovsky, Hussain Tuma, and Jacobo Bielak, eds. A Two-State Solution in the Middle East--Prospects and Possibilities: An International Conference. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1993.