Neil Narang

About

Neil Narang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His specialization includes International Relations, International Security and Conflict Management, Political Violence, and International Institutions. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego in 2012 and holds a B.A. in Molecular Cell Biology and Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. In 2015-2016, he served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy on a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. His research primarily focuses on international security, conflict management and peacebuilding, and the relationship between international institutions and conflict. He is the editor of the book Nuclear Posture and Nonproliferation Policy: Causes and Consequences for the Spread of Nuclear Weapons. Neil Narang has been a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Browne Center for International Politics, a nonproliferation policy fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a junior faculty fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. He teaches courses including National Security, Junior Honors Seminar, International Relations Theory Seminar, and War, Diplomacy, and International Security.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Law
• Sociology
• Public administration
• Positive economics
• Epistemology
• Macroeconomics
• Social psychology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Emerging technologies and strategic stability in peacetime, crisis, and war

  Journal of Strategic Studies · 2019-08-22 · 118 citations

  article

  Recent commentary has sounded the alarm about the effects of emerging technologies on strategic stability, yet the topic has received relatively little systematic scholarly attention. Will emerging technologies such as cyber, autonomous weapons, additive manufacturing, hypersonic vehicles, and remote sensing make the world more dangerous? Or is pessimism unwarranted? In this volume, we leverage international relations scholarship, historical data, and a variety of methodological approaches to di…

  PublisherDOI

• Assisting Uncertainty: How Humanitarian Aid can Inadvertently Prolong Civil War

  International Studies Quarterly · 2014-10-06 · 114 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Humanitarian aid has rapidly emerged as a core component of modern peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction. However, some practitioners and policymakers claim that humanitarian assistance may actually prolong conflict. The current debate about the effect of humanitarian aid on conflict underspecifies causal mechanisms and takes place largely through case studies. I use a bargaining framework to argue that aid can inadvertently increase each combatant's uncertainty about the other side's r…

  PublisherDOI

• Poor Man’s Atomic Bomb? Exploring the Relationship between “Weapons of Mass Destruction”

  Journal of Conflict Resolution · 2013-11-13 · 104 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  The causes and consequences of nuclear proliferation have received a great deal of academic attention. However, nuclear weapons are rarely discussed in isolation in policy circles. Instead, nuclear weapons are relevant as part of a category of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that includes chemical and biological weapons (CBWs). Are the factors that drive CBWs proliferation similar to those that drive nuclear proliferation? What is the relationship between these weapons types? In this article,…

  PublisherDOI

• A Strategic Logic of Attacking Aid Workers: Evidence from Violence in Afghanistan

  International Studies Quarterly · 2017-03-01 · 85 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Why do armed groups ever direct violent attacks against humanitarian organizations? While scholars have analyzed wartime violence against civilians, little research exists on violence against other noncombatants, like humanitarian organizations. Violence against aid workers, however, is common in wartime, with devastating consequences for civilians, who suffer when aid organizations respond by reducing services. This article argues that much of the violence against humanitarian organizations is…

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction: What Is Populist Nationalism and Why Does It Matter?

  The Journal of Politics · 2019-03-05 · 54 citations

  article

  This essay serves as an introduction to the US Foreign Policy in the Age of Trump Symposium. Two years into his first term as president of the United States, Donald Trump has made his presence known on the international stage. In articulating his administration’s position on a range of foreign policy issues, he has been called many things, including “antiglobalist,” “nativist,” and “isolationist,” which suggests a break from American foreign policy of the recent past. Is this perceived break ind…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Brad L. LeVeck

  University of California, Merced

  4 shared

• Brian C. Rathbun

  Southern California University for Professional Studies

  4 shared

• Caitlin Talmadge

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  3 shared

• Erik Gartzke

  3 shared

• Todd S. Sechser

  University of Virginia

  3 shared

• Michael C. Horowitz

  University of Pennsylvania

  2 shared

• Emilie M. Hafner‐Burton

  2 shared

• Matthew Kroenig

  Atlantic Council

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Browne Center for…
• Nonproliferation Policy Fellow at Los Alamos National Labora…
• Junior Faculty Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for In…
• Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow (2…

Similar researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara

• Bruce Bimberh-39
• Christopher Sebastian Parkerh-22
• Daniel Mastersonh-20