Research Fellows

Kirstin J.H. Brathwaite is an assistant professor of international relations at James Madison College, Michigan State University. She is interested in questions of identity and military conflict. She has published on ethnic identity and civil war, while her current research focuses on the role of national identity in military combat effectiveness and the influence of gender, race, and ethnic identities on civil-military relations… Click for full bio

Brian C. Chao is an assistant professor in the National Security Affairs Department at the Naval War College and an associate of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on great-power politics and China’s rise, naval power and geostrategy, and US Indo-Asia-Pacific defense and foreign policies. Dr. Chao’s book project investigates why some continental great powers are more successful than others at naval development… Click for full bio

Dr. Kerry Chávez is an instructor in the Political Science Department and project administrator at the Peace, War, and Social Conflict Laboratory at Texas Tech University. Her research focuses on the politics, strategies, and technologies of international conflict and security. In particular, she examines the incentives, opportunities, and constraints that structure the behaviors of key actors evaluating, engaging in, or debriefing after modern conflicts…. Click for full bio

Dr. Katherine Kjellström Elgin is a fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. She brings rigorous research to policy discussions and has held positions in both academic and policy organizations. Prior to joining CSBA, she served as a DAAD Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she wrote and published on grand strategy, great power relations, US defense strategy, European security, and alliance management…. Click for full bio

Elizabeth M.F. Grasmeder draws on more than a decade of foreign policy experience to challenge fundamental assertions in international relations about the nature of national power. Her research examines the composition of modern militaries, covert action, and interstate and intrastate conflict. Elizabeth’s article in International Security and book project examine foreign military recruitment… Click for full bio

Carrie A. Lee is an associate professor at the US Army War College, where she serves as the chair of the Department of National Security and Strategy and co-director of the USAWC Center on Civil-Military Relations. She received her PhD in political science from Stanford University in 2015, and a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010. She studies how democratic political institutions (like elections) affect inter-state conflict, military operations… Click for full bio

Danielle Lupton is an associate professor of political science at Colgate University and co-editor of International Studies Perspectives. Her research investigates the impact of individual leaders on international security and foreign policy. She has a special interest in how leaders use the tools of coercion to achieve their foreign policy goals, leaders establish reputations… Click for full bio

Jason Lyall is the inaugural James Wright Chair of Transnational Studies and Associate Professor in the government department at Dartmouth. He also directs the Political Violence FieldLab at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding. He is currently writing a book on the lessons of the Afghan War for Princeton University Press. His first book, Divided Armies: Inequality and Battlefield Performance in Modern War… Click for full bio

Emma Moore is a strategic analyst with the Department of Defense. She is also a non-resident fellow at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Creativity at Marine Corps University. Previously she was a research associate at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) on the Military, Veterans, and Society Program where her research focused on recruitment and retention challenges…

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Col. Jaron S. Wharton is an infantry officer and a Chief of Staff of the Army Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He previously served on the Army’s People First Task Force and as the commander for 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division. He was on the National Security Council staff… Click for full bio

Kyle J. Wolfley is an Army strategist at US Army Cyber Command and former assistant professor of international affairs at West Point, where he taught advanced international relations, a national security seminar, and a senior project that developed research on great power competition and deterrence for the US Strategic Command Academic Alliance…. Click for full bio