Early Career Scholars

Markets, Rulemaking, and Change in the Global Political Order

Brandon Sullivan is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at Boston University, researching the political economy of private governance and its impact on state power, with a focus on private actors in international security. His current work examines the conditions under which private entities support or shape state-led security efforts. He was an Inaugural Graduate Student Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (2023–2024) and a Civic Action Project Summer Fellow with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (2022). He has also contributed to global digital governance as a technical stakeholder in the UN’s pre-negotiation process for the Global Digital Compact, and work related to governance of various Wikipedia projects. Brandon’s project explores when professionals in U.S. banking and finance support political solutions—especially military intervention—for market disruptions. Using survey experiments, it tests how information on international supply chain risks (IV) influences support for intervention or war (DV), while controlling for foreign policy attitudes. The study contributes to understanding market actors as transnational political agents shaping global economic and security dynamics.

Acquisition for Accession: Eastern and Central Europe, the End of the Cold War, and Arms Transfers Network.

Chi Fang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He studies international relations and international security, with a focus on the politics of arms production and transfers. His research answers how grand strategy and foreign policy affect a state’s decision to make weapons at home or buy weapons abroad. He uses social network analysis and qualitative methods to investigate the production and flow of weapons. He is also interested in coercive diplomacy, Indo-Pacific geopolitics, and Taiwan. Besides political science, he also participates in medical studies to examine social networks of HIV/AIDS transmissions. He holds an M.A. and B.A. in Diplomacy from the National Chengchi University, Taiwan. Description: Using social network analysis, this project identifies the political causes and methods of the acquisitions of command, control, and communication (C3) equipment in Eastern and Central Europe after the Cold War.

Transnational Civil Society Networks and Digital Resistance in Southeast Asia: Strategies for Cross-Border Mobilization

Dien Luong is a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and a PhD student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research examines authoritarian propaganda and how authoritarian regimes coopt emerging technologies to justify state control. His scholarly contributions include book chapters and monographs, alongside a portfolio of OpEds published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Nikkei Asia, HuffPost, the Guardian, and South China Morning Post, among others. He has also held fellowship positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Kennedy School, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This project explores how transnational civil society networks mobilize across borders to resist digital repression, focusing on coalition-building strategies, regional advocacy efforts, and the evolving political dynamics of digital resistance in Southeast Asia.

Bring Back Our Girls Transnational Political Movement and the Gendered Dimensions of Armed Conflict in Fragile Settings

Dr. Aina is a Political Scientist and international security analyst. He is currently a lecturer in the Political Economy of Violence, Conflict and Development, Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, United Kingdom. He completed a second master’s degree in African studies, at the University of Oxford, having earlier obtained a master’s degree in international development policy from Seoul National University, South Korea. He holds a doctorate degree in Leadership Studies, with reference to security and development from King’s College London, United Kingdom. A recipient of multiple awards, his works have been published in several reputable international peer reviewed journals such as African Security, Armed Forces & Society, Applied Security Research, and Democracy and Security amongst others.

Exploring Activist Perspectives in Transnational Networks

Janine Schröder is a PhD candidate at the Chair of Computational Social Science at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Her work focuses on transnational collective action networks, online activism, and the intersection of digital and spatial dynamics in political mobilization. This project examines the spatial dynamics of antifascist networks across Europe, focusing on how geographical proximity, (inter)national contexts, and homophily shape (virtual) connections. While antifascist movements are inherently transnational, their network structures remain underexplored. To address this gap, the project integrates qualitative interviews with activists from countries with a high online presence of antifascist activists (Greece, Italy, and Germany) to analyze the challenges and strategies for building transnational solidarity. The findings will provide insights into decentralized activism and international cooperation dynamics.

Transnational Networks and INGO–Local Government Collaboration in the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Sector After Civil War

Jeeyon Choi is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. Her research interests include post-conflict statebuilding and peacebuilding, international development, and the role of international organizations. Her current project examines collaboration between international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and subnational governments in the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector after civil wars, focusing on how transnational networks influence these partnerships. She uses a mixed-methods approach that combines fieldwork, interviews, and original data collection. Jeeyon holds an M.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in International Studies from Korea University.

Uncharted: United Nations Reform Network

Dr. Justin K. Haner is a political scientist and research fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Committed to ensuring his work resonates beyond the classroom, Justin is an outspoken advocate for United Nations reform with the ImPACT Coalition for UN Charter Reform, Citizens for Global Solutions, and the Coalition for the UN We Need. This project considers the prospects and challenges facing a small but dedicated coalition of transnational political activists seeking to radically overhaul the United Nations system.

Enabling Authoritarian Security Community within the Mekong Cooperation Framework: Transnational Policing, China, and Mainland Southeast Asia

Lin Sae-Phoo is a Ph.D. candidate in International, Political, and Strategic Studies at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University (ANU), Australia. His research interests include international political economy, international security, and authoritarianism, with a regional focus on the Asia-Pacific, particularly China, Southeast Asia, and Pacific Island countries. This project examines international police cooperation within the Mekong Cooperation framework—a regional initiative led by China in partnership with mainland Southeast Asian countries along the Mekong River—to explore the motivations of state actors in contributing to regional security community formation through transnational policing.

Antarctica as an Ultrasocial Project

Nathanial is an ABD PhD candidate at Brandeis University, where he studies the formation of international governance in the Global Commons, among other topics. This project uses archival material to investigate the ideas, networks, and political concerns that generated the Antarctic Treaty, which has acted as a framework for peaceful management of the Antarctic since 1959.

COVAX and the Persistence of Epistemic Divergence in Global Outbreak Response

Summer Marion is Assistant Professor of International Relations and Global Health Policy at Bentley University. Her mixed methods research and teaching focus on global governance, international organizations, global health, and philanthropy. Summer’s scholarship and commentary on these topics has appeared in outlets including International Studies Review, International Studies Perspectives, BMJ Global Health, Global Health Governance, the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, and CNN International. She has held affiliations as a Research Fellow with the Pandemics & Borders Project and the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM), and a Visiting Researcher at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. This project investigates contestation between advocates of global health equity and proponents of neoliberal approaches to health within the transnational community of global health elites involved in designing and implementing COVAX, the public-private partnership developed to address global vaccine equity during the COVID-19 pandemic.