Neil Narang

Neil Narang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Director of Research at the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC).

Previously, Narang served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense on a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship. He is currently an advisor to the Director’s Office of Los Alamos National Laboratory, a faculty affiliate at the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), affiliated researcher at the Centre for Conflict Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Narang specializes in international relations, with a focus on issues of international security and conflict management. Specifically, his research explores the role of signaling under uncertainty in situations of bargaining and cooperation, particularly as it applies to two substantive domains: (1) crisis bargaining in both interstate and civil war, and (2) cooperation through nuclear and conventional military alliances. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, among others.

He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from UC San Diego and he holds a B.A. in Molecular Cell Biology and Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He has previously 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 and visiting professor at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

Books

Emerging Technologies and International Stability. eds. Neil Narang, Todd Sechser, Caitlin Talmadge. Routledge Press. 2021

Nonproliferation Policy and Nuclear Posture: Causes and Consequences for the Spread of Nuclear Weapons. eds. Neil Narang, Erik Gartzke, Matthew Kroenig. Routledge Press. 2015

Articles

1. Does Female Ratio Balancing Influence the Efficacy of Peacekeeping Units? Exploring the Impact of Female Peacekeepers on Post-Conflict Outcomes and Behavior. (w/Yanjun Liu). International Interactions. 2021.

   Awarded 2018 Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women and Politics

2. Stylized Facts and Comparative Statics in (Social) Scientific Inquiry. (w/Brad LeVeck). International Studies Quarterly. 2020.
3. What is Populist Nationalism and Why Does it Matter? (w/Emilie Hafner-Burton and Brian Rathbun). Journal of Politics. 2019.
4. Emerging Technologies and Strategic Stability in Peacetime, Crisis, and War. (w/Todd Sechser and Caitlin Talmadge). Journal of Strategic Studies. 2019.
5. International Reputation and Alliance Portfolios: How Unreliability Effects the Structure and Composition of Alliance Treaties. (w/Brad LeVeck). Journal of Peace Research. 2019.
6. The Unforeseen Consequences of Extended Deterrence: Moral Hazard in a Nuclear Client State. (w/Rupal Mehta). Journal of Conflict Resolution. 2017.
7. A Strategic Logic of Attacking Aid Workers: Evidence from Violence in Afghanistan. (w/Jessica Stanton). International Studies Quarterly. 2017.

   Awarded “Best Paper” in 2017 by the American Political Science Association on Conflict Processes

8. The Democratic Peace and the Wisdom of Crowds. (w/Brad LeVeck). International Studies Quarterly. 2017.
9. How International Reputation Matters: Revisiting Alliance Violations in Context. (w/ Brad LeVeck). International Interactions. 2016.
10. All Together Now: Questioning WMDs as a Useful Analytic Unit for Understanding Chemical and Biological Weapons Proliferation. The Nonproliferation Review. 2016.
11. Forgotten Conflicts? Need versus Political Priority in the Allocation of Humanitarian Assistance. International Interactions. 2015.
12. Assisting Uncertainty: How Humanitarian Aid Inadvertently can Inadvertently Prolong Civil War. International Studies Quarterly. 2015.
13. Poor Man’s Atomic Bomb? Exploring the Relationship Between “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (w/Michael Horowitz). Journal of Conflict Resolution. 2014.
14. Humanitarian Assistance and the Duration of Peace after Civil War. Journal of Politics. 2014.