Education:

Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Expertise:

U.S. defense and foreign policy; military operations and strategy; nuclear deterrence, proliferation; civil-military relations; energy security and the Gulf

Background:

Caitlin Talmadge's research and teaching focus on international relations and foreign policy, with a specialization in defense and security issues. Her work has appeared in International Security, the Non-Proliferation Review, and the Washington Quarterly, as well as in the general media. She is also co-author of U.S. Defense Politics: the Origins of Security Policy (Routledge, 2008), with Eugene Gholz and Harvey Sapolsky. Her dissertation, "Explaining Military Effectiveness: Political Intervention and Battlefield Performance," examined the influence of political-military relations on the battlefield effectiveness of authoritarian armies, and is currently under revision for publication as a book. Her other research projects explore the political and military implications of U.S. presence in the Middle East; the causes and effects of variation in states' assessment of their own military capabilities; and quantitative tests of the impact of civil-military relations on states' conflict behavior.

Professor Talmadge holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2011) and an A.B., summa cum laude, from Harvard College (2003). She has also held fellowships from the Brookings Institution, the American Political Science Association Centennial Center, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard. Prior to graduate school, Professor Talmadge worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and she has also served as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Courses Taught: