Featured Guest Speakers Include:
Dr. Ariel Petrovics | Research Associate | Center for International and Security Studies | University of Maryland
Ariel Petrovics examines the effectiveness of foreign policies for addressing problems in international security, including issues of nuclear proliferation and the risks of counterproductive consequences in security strategies. Her book project compares the effectiveness of common foreign policies for inducing nuclear reversal, while related research evaluates engagement strategies with renegade regimes, and the effects of new proliferators on international security. Petrovics earned her PhD in Political Science from the University of California.
Dr. Lindsay Rand | Postdoctoral Fellow | Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) | Stanford University
Lindsay Rand completed her PhD in international security and economic policy at the UMD School of Public Policy in 2023. Her dissertation, titled “Schrodinger’s Technology is Here and Not: A Socio-Technical Evaluation of Quantum Sensing Implications for Nuclear Deterrence,” examined the social, technical, and strategic factors that shape perceptions of new technologies and their consequences for deterrence and strategic stability. Her current research extends her dissertation work in two key areas: assessing the implications of quantum technology for international security and exploring how social, political, and technological changes have contributed to the cyclical reconception of “vulnerability” in nuclear strategy and policymaking.
Dr. Jaganath "Jay" Sankaran | Associate Professor | LBJ School of Public. Affairs | University of Texas-Austin
Jaganath “Jay” Sankaran works on problems at the intersection of international security and science & technology. The current focus of his research is the growing strategic and military competition between the major powers. In particular, Sankaran studies the impact of emerging technological advances on international politics, warfare, and nuclear weapons doctrine. His next book project explores the politics and policymaking of socially disruptive emerging technologies, comparatively evaluating American attempts at policymaking and regulation of disruptive technologies—Cloning, Human Genome Project, Genetic Engineering (gene editing recently), Nanotechnology, and Geoengineering—in the presence of several scientific and ethical uncertainties. He is also working on a book project to develop a theory of technology denial that can inform American policy efforts to deny access to emerging state-of-the-art capabilities (particularly in “compute” power) to adversaries. Sankaran received his PhD in Policy Studies from the University of Maryland.