GRADUATE STUDENT | ROBERT REARDON
Biography
Robert Reardon received his PhD in political science from MIT in 2010. His research focuses on international cooperation and arms control, and in particular how offers of positive inducements can be used to promote compliance with international arms control regimes. He is a postdoctoral scholar at MIT, where he works on the Explorations in Cyber International Relations (ECIR) project. He is also an adjunct political scientist for the RAND Corporation, where he conducts research sponsored by the Air Force on the United States's conventional military posture toward nuclear-armed regional adversaries. From 2010-2011, he was a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at RAND, and authored a book on the Iranian nuclear program. He received his PhD in political science from MIT in 2010, and has a BA from Columbia. His dissertation, advised by Stephen Van Evera, assesses the relative effectiveness of negative sanctions and positive inducements in convincing states to give up their nuclear weapons programs, and identifies conditions under which they are most likely to succeed or fail. It finds that policies of engagement and offers of inducements are generally more likely to succeed than negative sanctions, and – counter-intuitively – that this is particularly the case between adversaries. US counter-proliferation efforts with South Korea, North Korea, and Libya are examined as case studies. Reardon has teaching experience in American foreign policy, the causes and prevention of war, political ethics, and technology and public policy. He is a native of the Boston area.
Papers
Can We Stop the Iranian Bomb?, Santa Monica, CA: RAND (forthcoming, 2011).
Robert J. Reardon, "Russia, Iran, and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime" in Jeffrey Fields, ed., State Nonproliferation Decision-Making (edited volume sponsored by Defense Threat Reduction Agency, under review).
Robert J. Reardon, "Why Bombing Nuclear Programs Doesn't Work: Preventive Force Against Nuclear Aspirants" (under review).
Robert J. Reardon, "The Art of the Nuclear Deal: Carrots and Sticks in Nonproliferation Policy" (under review).
