Research Fellows

Gil Barndollar is a senior research fellow at the Catholic University of America’s Center for the Study of Statesmanship and a non-resident fellow at Defense Priorities. He primarily studies military manpower and mobilization. From 2009 to 2016, Gil served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. He deployed twice to Afghanistan, first as a light armored reconnaissance platoon commander and then as a combat advisor with the Georgian Army. Gil holds an AB in history from Bowdoin College and MPhil and PhD degrees in history from the University of Cambridge.

Shahin Berenji is an assistant professor in the Strategy and Policy Department at the US Naval War College. He earned his PhD and MA in Political Science from the University of California Los Angeles and his BA in Political Science from the University of Southern California. He studies foreign policy decision-making and diplomacy and has a specialization in the Cold War and regional expertise in the Middle East. His research has been published in such academic journals as International Security and Security Studies and his commentary and op-eds have been featured online with the Modern War Institute at West Point, the National Interest, and E-International Relations.

Dr. Conner Bender is a distinguished artillery officer in the US Army, cybersecurity researcher, and licensed aircraft and drone pilot. In 2023, he was honored as one of the Army’s 30 Under 30 by the Center for Junior Officers at West Point, recognizing his exceptional leadership and contributions to defense innovation. A Truman Scholar and NSF Cyber Corps Fellow, Dr. Bender holds three advanced degrees, culminating in a PhD in computer science with a cyber operations specialization from The University of Tulsa, where he also served as student body president. His groundbreaking research on commercial unmanned aerial systems has been published in NATO’s International Conference on Cyber Conflict and featured in Wired.

Dr. Troy J. Bouffard, US Army (retired), has a masters in arctic policy and a PhD in interdisciplinary studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). He is the director of the UAF Center for Arctic Security and Resilience (CASR) and recently served as the project lead for a NATO arctic research project and has recent chapters in the Munich Security Conference 2023 Arctic Security Report. He recently served as a congressional fellow and arctic advisor to US Senator Lisa Murkowski. He has published many peer-reviewed and commentary articles, including with the USNORTHCOM journal The Watch, USINDOPACIFIC Journal of INDOPACIFIC Affairs, Infantry Magazine, and many more.

Paul Cormarie is a Policy Analyst in RAND’s Washington office. In addition to his work at RAND, Paul was a Nuclear Scholar at CSIS where he conducted research on French nuclear deterrence strategy and is currently a contributing editor to the Irregular Warfare Initiative (IWI). Previously, Paul was a Researcher at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, where he researched and wrote reports on the Alliance and its role in the Indo-Pacific, in climate security, and in other topics related to European security. Additionally, he also was an assistant to the Emeritus Chair in Strategy Dr. Anthony Cordesman of CSIS. He is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he received a Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS).

Vito D’Orazio is a Woodburn Associate Professor of Political Science and Data Science at West Virginia University. Previously, he earned tenure at the University of Texas at Dallas and was a postdoc at Harvard’s Institute for quantitative qocial qcience. His research interests are in conflict forecasting, conflict data, natural language processing, and event data extraction and analysis. He has published over 35 peer-reviewed papers in journals and conference proceedings and has been funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation. Currently, he is the PI on an NSF-funded effort to expand the Militarized Interstate Dispute data.

Federico Manfredi Firmian is a lecturer in political science at Sciences Po Paris as well as an associate research fellow at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), a member of the editorial board of the journal Small Wars & Insurgencies, and a member of the Ambassador Council of the International Crisis Group. He holds a PhD in political geography from Sorbonne University, a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a master’s in political science from the City University of New York Graduate Center. He specializes in the study of armed conflict, irregular warfare, and US foreign policy, focusing primarily on the greater Middle East.

Tyler Hacker is a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, where his work focuses on long-range strike and future operational concepts for great power conflict. Since joining CSBA, he has written on topics including precision-guided munitions, ground-based fires, joint command and control, military innovation, and European security. Tyler previously served as a field artillery officer in the United States Army in Germany, where he participated in NATO operations and exercises in Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states. He also worked at the US Army War College and the American Enterprise Institute. Tyler holds a BA in International Studies from Virginia Military Institute and an MA in Security Studies from Georgetown University.

Justin Magula is an Army strategist and Goodpaster Scholar in his second year of political science PhD studies at the University of Virginia. Prior to this role, he served as an Assistant Professor at the US Army War College’s Center for Strategic Leadership. He has deep experience developing strategy, advising senior officials, and conducting experiments to test future concepts, doctrine, and force structure. His current research focuses on the connections between political economy, conflict, and international security, particularly related to authoritarian regimes. He holds a BS in political science from the United States Military Academy and a master’s in international public policy from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Lieutenant Colonel Kerney Perlik is an Army Aviation officer and PhD candidate in Georgetown University’s Department of Government through the Army’s Goodpaster Scholar program. She also served as an Assistant Professor in West Point’s Department of Social Sciences from 2017-2019. Kerney’s research interests include reconciliation and rapprochement after interstate war, particularly exploring the role of power asymmetry, political entrepreneurs, national narrative, and diaspora communities in reconciliation. Kerney holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University’s Fletcher School (2016) and a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy (2007).

Thomas J. Shattuck is a Senior Program Manager at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House and is a 2024-25 WSD-Handa Fellow at the Pacific Forum. His research focuses on cross-Strait relations, Taiwanese and Chinese domestic and foreign affairs, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, and the US role in the Indo-Pacific.  He received a BA from La Salle University in history and English writing and an MA in international studies from the National Chengchi University. He was a recipient of the Republic of China Ministry of Education Taiwan Scholarship, receiving a full scholarship for his graduate education.