Janice Gallagher’s research focuses on state-civil society relations, specifically how informal institutions, relationships and mobilization shape judicial and human rights outcomes.

Lauren MacLean’s research interests are comparative political economy and public policy, with a focus on the politics of state formation, public service provision, and citizenship in Africa and the U.S. In her first book, MacLean theorizes that divergent histories of state formation help explain variation in informal institutions and everyday practices of citizenship in two similar cross-border regions of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Most recently, MacLean is investigating the politics of public service provision in the electricity sector in Africa. She was selected as a 2017 Carnegie Fellow to investigate how electricity provision may promote democracy and environmental sustainability in Ghana.

Vipin Narang’s research interests include nuclear proliferation and strategy, North Korea's nuclear weapons, South Asian security, and general security studies. His first book Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era (Princeton University Press, 2014) on the deterrence strategies of regional nuclear powers won the 2015 ISA International Security Studies Section Best Book Award. His second book Seeking the Bomb: Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation is forthcoming with Princeton University Press.

Rachel Whitlark’s interests lie within international security and foreign-policy decision-making, specifically including nuclear proliferation, counter-proliferation, and military intervention. Her work investigates the role of the individual executive in foreign and security policy. Her book manuscript explores the use of preventive military force as a counter-proliferation strategy against adversarial nuclear programs and relies on archival research techniques. Additional projects examine nuclear latency, the provision of global public goods, and presidential beliefs about nuclear coercion