The Ford Security Seminar is an academic seminar series that brings together University of Michigan faculty, doctoral students, and outside scholars to discuss key developments in the theory and practice of international security. Convened by Prof. John Ciorciari, director of IPC and WDC, participants present original research on topics including international security, international institutions, human rights, and foreign policy analysis.
IPC holds Ford Security Seminar sessions throughout the academic year. To attend these events, please refer to RSVP instructions provided in event postings.
Upcoming seminars
2021 - 22
For information regarding upcoming Ford Security Seminar events, please visit our events page.
Past seminars
Ryan Van Wie (U.S. Military Academy, West Point) & Jacob Walden (University of Michigan): Excessive force or armored restraint? Government mechanization and civilian casualties in civil conflict
October 8: Richard Nielson, MIT
October 29: Will Rich, Council on Foreign Relations in New York
November 5: Desha Girod, Georgetown University
Dan Honig, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies - Getting Things Done in Tricky Places: When Reporting Undermines Performance for Aid Agencies
Yousuf al-Busaidi, Research Council of the Sultanate of Oman and Sultan Qaboos University - Politics of the Persian Gulf
Michael Woolcock, World Bank and Harvard Kennedy School - Building State Capability as the 21st Century Development Challenge
Austin Carson, University of Chicago - The Disclosure Dilemma: Nuclear Intelligence and International Organization
Dominic Tierney, Swarthmore College - America in the Age of Unwinnable Wars
Tim Maurer, IPC Visiting Scholar and Carnegie Endowment - A Fork in the Road: International Norms for Cyberspace
Matt Spence, Stanford University - Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Policy in the Middle East
Greg Fox, Wayne State Law School - The Security Council and the New Law of Internal Armed Conflict
Scott Kastner, University of Maryland - Is the Taiwan Strait still a flash point? Analyzing the prospects for armed conflict between China and Taiwan
Phillip C. Saunders, National Defense University - PLA Influence on China’s National Security Policymaking
Alexander Cooley, Columbia University - Undermining the Hegemon via a Thousand Paper-Cuts? The Logics of Goods Substitution and "Soft-Balancing"
Steve Biddle, Ryan Maker and Julia MacDonald, George Washington University - Small Footprint, Small Payoff: The Military Effectiveness of Security Force Assistance
Reyko Huang, Bush School, Texas A&M University - The Wartime Origins of Postwar Democratization: Civil War, Mobilization, and Regime Change
Tim Maurer, IPC Visiting Scholar and New America - Understanding and Enhancing Cybersecurity
Aila Matanock, University of California-Berkeley - International Insurance: Explaining Electoral Participation Provisions in Peace Agreement Design
Monica Hakimi, University of Michigan Law School - The Two Codes on the Use of Force
Sarah Kreps, Cornell University - Mechanisms of Morality: Sources of Support for Humanitarian Intervention
Todd Hall, University of Oxford - Affect, Emotion, and International Relations
Peter Katzenstein, Cornell University - Anglo-America and the Dynamics of Globalization
Duncan McCargo, Columbia University and University of Leeds - The Trouble with Transitional Justice: Lessons from Southeast Asia
Jessica Stanton, University of Pennsylvania - Violence and Restraint in Civil War
Meredith Blank and Laura Seago, University of Michigan -A Winning Proposition: Multinational Firms and the Economy of Conflict
Dara Kay Cohen, Harvard University - Rape During Civil War: Causes and Consequences
James Ron, University of Minnesota - Universal Values, Foreign Money: The Political Economy of Local Human Rights Organizations
Khalil Shikaki, Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research - Costs and Benefits of Integrating Islamists: the Case of Hamas in Palestine
Jessica Weeks, University of Wisconsin - War Outcomes and Leader Tenure
Jens David Ohlin, Cornell University Law School - The Combatant's Privilege in Asymmetric and Covert Conflicts
Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, Harris School, University of Chicago - Factional Conflict and Territorial Rents
Stephen Haggard, University of California, San Diego - Engagement with North Korea: Evidence from Firm-Level Surveys
Steve Krasner, Stanford University - State Building Outside In: Development Theories and Policy Implications
Stephanie Forrest, University of New Mexico - Internet Governance: What Does It Mean and Is It Achievable?
William Burke-White, University of Pennsylvania Law School - Power Shifts in International Law: Structural Realignment and Substantive Pluralism
Jessica Chen Weiss, Yale University and John D. Ciorciari, Ford School, University of Michigan - Nationalist Protests, Government Responses, and the Risk of Escalation in Interstate Disputes
Matt Fuhrmann, Texas A&M - Do Arms Control Treaties Work? Domestic Politics and the Constraining Power of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
David Kang, University of Southern California - Do Military Expenditures Reflect External Threats in East Asia?
William Wohlforth, Dartmouth College - Assessing the Security Benefits of U.S. Grand Strategy
Dan Reiter, Emory University - How War Makes the State: Insurgency, External Threat, and Road Construction in India
Vipin Narang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Windows of Volatility? Unpacking the Relationship between Nuclear Proliferation, Deterrence, and Time
Carrie Booth Walling, Albion College - Human Rights Norms, State Sovereignty and Humanitarian Intervention
Jacob Shapiro, Princeton University - How Natural Disasters Affect Political Attitudes and Behavior: Evidence from the 2010-11 Pakistani Floods
James Whitman, Yale Law School - The Verdict of Battle
William Inboden, LBJ School, University of Texas at Austin - Grand Strategy and Petty Squabbling: The Paradox of the Reagan National Security Council
Robert Axelrod, Ford School, University of Michigan - Doctrinal Issues for Cyber Conflict
Benjamin O. Fordham, Binghamton University (SUNY) - Economic Interests and Threat Assessment in the U.S. Congress, 1890-1914
Charles Kupchan, Georgetown University - Unpacking Hegemony: The Normative Dimensions of Hierarchical Order
Dominic J. Nardi, University of Michigan - It's not what you say, it's how much you say it: Comparing Authoritarian and Democratic Constitutions
Using Latent Text Analysis
Philip Potter, Ford School, University of Michigan - Leadership Deficits and Civilian Targeting by Terrorist Organizations
Mia Bloom, Pennsylvania State University - Charting the Increasing Role of Children in Violent Extremist Organizations
David M. Crane, Syracuse University College of Law - An Age of Extremes: International Law in Crises-Eight Challenges
Cali Mortenson Ellis, Ford School, University of Michigan - The Effect of Childhood War Trauma on a Leader's Decision to Use Force
Gary Uzonyi, University of Michigan -Protecting civilians abroad: Post-Cold War humanitarianism and third-party interventions into conflict
Peter Feaver, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University - Military Endorsements and Public Opinion: What Effect and Why?
Taylor Fravel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Explaining Major Change In China’s Military Strategy
Jon Pevehouse, University of Wisconsin - An Opportunity Cost Theory of US Treaty Behavior
Andrea Jones-Rooy, Carnegie Mellon University - The Strategic Use of the Media in China and Other Autocracies
Alastair Smith and Scott Tyson, New York University - A Two-Sided Global Game of Revolution: Higher Order Uncertainty and Mass Action
Robert Ross, Boston College - Chinese Nationalism and the American 'Pivot' to East Asia: Prospects for U.S.-China Relations
Dan Slater, University of Chicago - The Strength to Concede: Ruling Parties and Democratization in Developmental Asia
William G. Howell, University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy - The Wartime President
T.V. Paul, McGill University - War and State-building: Pakistan in Comparative Perspective