Ionut Popescu is the American Grand Strategy Program Fellow and a PhD candidate in International Relations at Duke University. His dissertation project examines the interplay between design and emergence in the making of American grand strategy. Other research interests include the study of defense planning and budgets, civil-military relations, strategic theory, the future of war, and the parallels between business and the national security strategic planning processes. His articles appeared in Joint Force Quarterly, Contemporary Security Policy, Armed Forces Journal, and Orbis. Prior to coming to Duke, Popescu graduated Summa Cum Laude from Occidental College with a B.A. in Diplomacy and World Affairs, and he worked in Washington, D.C. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS).American Grand Strategy Program - People

Duke University Program in
American Grand Strategy


Director

Peter Feaver is a professor of Political Science and Public Policy and the director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies. He is active in public service, and early in his career was Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control on the National Security Council staff at the White House, where his responsibilities included counterproliferation policy, regional nuclear arms control, and the national security strategy review. More recently, he worked as the Special Advisor for Strategic Planning and Institutional Reform on the National Security Council staff, where his responsibilities included the National Security Strategy, regional and functional strategic reviews and contingency planning, and other strategic planning duties. He is the author of several books, monographs and numerous articles and book chapters concerning American foreign policy, nuclear proliferation, civil-military relations, information warfare, public opinion, and U.S. national security.

American Grand Strategy Affliated Professor

Hal Brands joined the faculty at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy in July 2010. He is a historian whose research focuses on U.S. foreign policy, Cold War history, Latin American security and diplomacy, and strategic and military issues. He worked at the nonprofit Institute for Defense Analyses from 2008-2010 and is the American Grand Strategy Assistant Professor of Public Policy.

Brands is the author of From Berlin to Baghdad: America's Search for Purpose in the Post-Cold War World (University Press of Kentucky, 2008). His second book, Latin America's Cold War (Harvard University Press, September 2010), was adapted from his dissertation, which won the John Addison Porter Prize for Best Dissertation in the Humanities and the Mary and Arthur Wright Prize for Best Dissertation in Non-U.S. or European History.

Brands earned a PhD, MA and MPhil. in History from Yale University.

Coordinators

Ionut Popescu is the American Grand Strategy Program Fellow and a PhD candidate in International Relations at Duke University. His dissertation project examines the interplay between design and emergence in the making of American grand strategy. Other research interests include the study of defense planning and budgets, civil-military relations, strategic theory, the future of war, and the parallels between business and the national security strategic planning processes. His articles appeared in Joint Force Quarterly, Contemporary Security Policy, Armed Forces Journal, and Orbis. Prior to coming to Duke, Popescu graduated Summa Cum Laude from Occidental College with a B.A. in Diplomacy and World Affairs, and he worked in Washington, D.C. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Jennifer Boyle is the Program Assistant for the American Grand Strategy Program, the Triangle Institute for Security Studies, and the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security. She has served as a Research Assistant for Colonel Matthew Moten since July 2009 and has a special interest in the civil-military relations of the United States. Jennifer graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010 with a B.A. in Peace, War, and Defense, and a second major in History.

Leadership Team

Bruce Jentleson is a Professor of Public Policy and Political Science whose area of expertise includes conflict prevention and peacekeeping, globalization, the Middle East, U. S. foreign policy, and international institutions. His current research focuses on post-Cold War American foreign policy, international security, and issues of force and diplomacy. Previously Professor Jentleson served as a senior foreign policy advisor to the Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign, as a member of the State Department Policy Planning Staff and as a foreign policy advisor to then-Senator Gore.

 

Bruce Kuniholm is a Professor of History and Public Policy and the Director of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. His research focuses on diplomatic history and U.S. foreign policy in the Near and Middle East. Professor Kuniholm has worked on the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Policy Planning Staff. He has also served as a consultant for the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps, the United Technologies Corporation and the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

 

Michael Munger is a Professor of Political Science and the Department Chair. His interests include American institutions, public policy, political behavior and parties. Professor Munger’s current research focuses on the ideology of racism in the slave South, and experiments using human subjects on spatial location games under complex information settings. He has also worked as a staff economist at the Federal Trade Commission during the Reagan Administration.

 

 

Alex Roland is Professor of History, specializing in military history and the history of technology . His research has dealt with aviation, astronautics, computers, weapons, and the relationship between war and technology. His published work has ranged from Greek fire in medieval Byzantium through submarine warfare in early modern history to computers, aerospace technology, and the military-industrial complex in the twentieth century. Professor Roland served in the United States Marine Corps from 1966 to 1970. Between 1973 and 1981 he was a historian for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He has been a visiting professor at the Army War College and the U.S. Naval Academy, his alma mater.

 

Core Faculty

Alexander Downes is an Assistant Professor of Political Science specializing in international security.  His research focuses on the causes and effectiveness of civilian victimization in warfare, and the consequences of foreign-imposed regime change in international politics. He has held fellowships at Harvard’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, and the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

 

 

Christopher Gelpi is a Professor of Political Science whose research interests include the sources of international militarized conflict, strategies for international conflict resolution, interstate relations, democratic peace, and methodology.  His current work focuses on American public opinion and the use of military force, and on statistical models for forecasting military conflict.

 

 

Joseph Grieco is a Professor of Political Science who focuses on international relations, international political economy, and international conflict. Previously he served with the Office of the United States Trade Representative and the International Monetary Fund as an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations.

 

 

David Schanzer is a Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Duke University and an Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina. He is also the Director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security. Previously, he served in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government, including Minority Staff Director of the Committee on Homeland Security, United States House of Representatives and Special Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, United States Department of Defense.

 

Tom Taylor is a Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Studies whose area of expertise includes national and homeland security, civil-military relations, leadership, and constitutional and intelligence law. He retired in 2006 as the senior career civilian attorney in the Department of the Army, where he served as the senior leader of the Army legal community during extended transition periods between successive political appointees. He has provided legal and policy advice to seven Secretaries and seven Chiefs of Staff during his past twenty seven years in the Pentagon. Professor Taylor has received four Presidential Rank Awards from the last three Presidents, as well as numerous military decorations, including the Legion of Merit.

 
   

Undergraduate Advisory Council

 Nikola Lahcanski is a Junior at Duke majoring in Political Science and minoring in Economics. He has been a member of AGS since 2008 and has served as Coordinator since 2010.

 

 

   

Erin Sweeney is an undergraduate sophomore from a town called Poland, Ohio. She is considering a major in Public Policy or International Comparative Studies. Erin is also on the Duke Debate Team.

 

       

Daniel Strunk is a freshman at Duke, where he plans to major in Economics and Psychology.  He hails from the great Midwest, (Cincinnati, OH, specifically) where he attended the Indian Hill public school system for all his educational years before Duke.  In addition to serving on the AGS Council, Daniel is actively involved in the Hamilton Society, works as a Research Assistant to a Duke Constitutional Law Professor, and is training to run his first marathon.

Jake Bullock is a senior Political Science and Economics major from Denver, CO. He is co-President of the Duke Political Union and Treasurer of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Neha Sabharwal is a Duke sophomore majoring in Public Policy with an acute interest in microfinance and the effect of women's empowerment on national development and the global economy. Outside of AGS, she serves on Duke Honor Council and Duke Democrats. She splits her time between Durham and Raleigh, where she works as a press intern in Governor Perdue's office. On campus, she works at the Kenan Institute for Ethics as a facilitator of a student-run monthly dialogue on subjects of ethical relevance. Lastly, she enjoys the performing arts--singing with Duke's Jazz Choir and dancing with Duke Dhamaka.