International Relations

Cross-Cutting Global Challenges



Maya Mikelson

PhD student in Political Science
Political Science

Maya Mikelson is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in International Relations and Methods. Her research interests include repression, conflict, militarization, interventions, and human rights. Before attending Berkeley, she earned a B.S. with High Honors in Political Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her senior thesis examined how militarization is measured and the relationship between militarization and conflict, using a latent variable model. She was an APSA Ralph Bunche Summer Institute Scholar in 2024.

Yunlin Wang

PhD student in Political Science
Political Science

Yunlin Wang is a PhD student in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on international and comparative political economy, particularly foreign investment. She received both her undergraduate and master's degrees from Peking University, with dual bachelor’s degrees in International Political Economy and Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and a master’s degree in International Relations

Leonardo Di Bonaventura Altuve

PhD Student
Political Science

Leonardo is a PhD candidate in Political Science. His research focuses on International Relations theory, qualitative methods, democracy promotion, and authoritarianism, particularly in Latin America & the Caribbean. Leonardo holds a MSc. in Global Governance & Diplomacy from the University of Oxford and B.A.s in International Relations & Global Studies and Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

Valerie Zhu

Graduate Student
Political Scienc
Valerie is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her intellectual curiosity lies in International Relations theories, the evolution of strategic competition, and the interplay between global conflicts and state-building in the case of proxy warfare. Valerie holds a B.A. in Political Science with High Honors from the University of Chicago and completed her Master's training at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and L'Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

California, Technology & The World

Oct. 2 Event | Cross-Strait Relations and U.S Foreign Policy Toward China

September 21, 2026
Event Hosted By the Alexander Hamilton Society of Berkeley Featuring U.S Naval War College Associate Professor Ian Easton and UC Berkeley School of Law Professor Chris Hoofnagle.

Join the Alexander Hamilton Society of Berkeley for their first speaker event of the year: a conversation on cross-strait relations and U.S. foreign policy toward China! This conversation will be moderated by Professor Chris Hoofnagle, and there will be free pizza.

Foreign Policy

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Oct. 1 Book Talk | Are We Living in a 1938 Moment?

September 16, 2026
Public Talk by Moritz Pollath, Assistant Professor of Public History, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich

The warning signs of the 1930s feel alarmingly familiar today: nationalist rhetoric, revisionism, military rearmament, political polarization. The liberal order is eroding, autocracies are rearming, and the West appears weaker than at any point in decades. In this book talk, historian and security expert Dr. Moritz Pöllath argues that these patterns function as an early warning system for the present: a new authoritarian axis — Russia, China, North...

Sep. 17 Talk | The Once and Future World Order - Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West

September 10, 2026
Public lecture by Professor Amitav Acharya Distinguished Professor of International Relations, American University The Institute of International Studies & the Goldman School of Public Policy are pleased to welcome Prof. Amitav Acharya for a public talk at IIS. Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, the West has been in crisis. Social unrest, political polarization, and...