Contact Information: Email: rmehta2@unl.edu Website: http://polisci.unl.edu/rupal-mehta Twitter: @Rupal_N_Mehta |
Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I am also an affiliated researcher and contributor to the Cross-Domain Deterrence Project at the University of California, San Diego. From 2014-2015, I was a Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow in the International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In July 2014, I received my Ph.D. in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego.
My research interests lie in international security and conflict, with a specialization in nuclear nonproliferation/counter-proliferation, extended deterrence, nuclear latency, force structure, and deterrence and coercion strategy. My book manuscript, The Politics of Nuclear Reversal, explores the conditions under which states that have started nuclear weapons programs stop their pursuit. Currently, I have a co-authored article on nuclear force structure at the Journal of Conflict Resolution which was reprinted in an edited volume on nuclear proliferation with Routledge Press in 2015. A related article on deterrence and force structure is under review. Additionally, I have on-going co-authored research projects on nuclear latency, forthcoming at International Studies Quarterly, published in The Washington Quarterly, and in an edited volume entitled , US Foreign Policy in a Challenging World - Building Order on Shifting Foundations. Other working papers on nuclear latency explore its security and energy determinants, its impact on trust in the international system, and its relationship to counterproliferation policy. Finally, a co-authored paper on extended nuclear deterrence is currently accepted at the Journal of Conflict Resolution and two co-authored pieces employ formal theory to examine how resolve and the costs of proliferation impact the likelihood of nuclear reversal. My commentary has been published in War on the Rocks, International Studies Quarterly, Washington Post's Monkey Cage, and DecodeDC. My research has received support from the Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation (the UC system), the Stanton Foundation, USSTRATCOM, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Senning Foundation, the University of Nebraska, and the University of California, San Diego. |