Security / Defense

Research Interest

Mark Danner

Professor
Graduate School of Journalism
English

Professor Mark Danner is longtime journalist and writer who holds the Class of 1961 Distinguished Chair in Undergraduate Education at the University of California at Berkeley, teaching in both the Graduate School of Journalism and the Department of English. He writes about political violence, war, and American politics, mostly for The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker, and teaches courses in foreign and war reporting and the realist and modernist novel.

Ryan Brutger

Associate Professor
Political Science

Ryan Brutger is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He studies international political economy, international law, international security, and political psychology, examining the domestic politics of international negotiations and cooperation.

Rupal Mehta

Chair of Research and Postdoctoral Fellows Program
Center for Global Security Research

Rupal Mehta is the Chair of Research and Postdoctoral Fellows Program and Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). She is also an Associate Professor (on leave) in the Department of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research interests lie in international security and conflict, with a specialization in nuclear proliferation/counterproliferation, extended deterrence, emerging technologies, and elite decision-making.

Andrew Reddie

Associate Research Professor
Goldman School of Public Policy
Andrew W. Reddie is an Associate Research Professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, and Founder of the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab. His research at the intersection of technology, politics, and security examines how emerging military capabilities shape international order—with a focus on nuclear weapons policy, cybersecurity, AI governance, and innovation. He is also a pioneer of the use of wargaming methods in both classroom and experimental settings. Andrew serves in...

Elena Chachko

Assistant Professor of Law
Berkeley Law
Elena Chachko is an Assistant Professor of Law at Berkeley Law School. She was the inaugural Rappaport Fellow at Harvard Law School. Motivated by experience in diplomacy and intelligence analysis, Professor Chachko’s research explores the intersection of law and geopolitics. Her recent projects study international cooperation in the administrative state, how agencies engage with international norms and practices in domestic regulation, the emergency governance of domestic and international institutions, the security and geopolitical aspects of tech governance, national security in economic...

Ron Hassner

Professor
Political Science

Ron Hassner is the Chancellor's Professor of Political Science and Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies at the University of California Berkeley. He is also the faculty director of the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies and is the editor of the Cornell University Press book series “Religion and Conflict.” Prof. Hassner studies the role of ideas, practices, and symbols in international security with particular attention to the relationship between religion and violence.

Andrew Reddie

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Political Science

Andrew Reddie is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and senior engineer at Sandia National Laboratories where he works on projects related to wargaming, nuclear issues, and cybersecurity. He is currently a Bridging the Gap New Era fellow, Hans J. Morgenthau fellow, a Krulak Center Non-Resident fellow at Marine Corps University, and Project Director at the Berkeley APEC Study Center.

Julia Raven

Graduate Student
Political Science

Julia Raven is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley. She studies security sector reform, military adaptation, and competition between major powers.

Chris Hoofnagle

Professor of Law in Residence
Law

Chris Jay Hoofnagle helps students from different disciplines understand the interplay of law and technology. He is the author of Law and Policy for the Quantum Age (with Simson Garfinkel, Cambridge University Press, 2022). An elected member of the American Law Institute, Hoofnagle is of counsel to Gunderson Dettmer LLP.

Rana Nejad

Undergraduate Student
Political Science

Rana Nejad is a student at UC Berkeley completing her B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Human Rights. Throughout her studies, she has focused mostly on the Middle East and North Africa region where she explores topics ranging from security and counterrorism to refugee rights and humanitarian development. Over the years, she has worked with nonprofits that advocate for the rights of immigrants and refugees along the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as contributed to a number of international affairs publications. Moving forward, she hopes to further advocate for the human rights of...