Tara Maller is a doctoral candidate in the Security Studies Program in the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her general areas of interest include terrorism, insurgency, intelligence, U.S. diplomacy and conflict resolution. Her current research focuses on analyzing the logic and consequences of U.S. diplomatic sanctions. More specifically, she is examining the reasons the United States chooses to downgrade or sever diplomatic ties with particular states and whether or not this is an effective foreign policy strategy.
Prior to MIT, Ms. Maller worked as a Military Analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, where she focused on the insurgency in Iraq. Specific areas of focus included analysis of insurgent attacks in Baghdad and population displacement trends. Ms. Maller graduated with honors from the University of Chicago, where she received a Master's in International Relations. She graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with the distinction of Honors in Government. While at Dartmouth, she spent time working at Dartmouth's Institute of Security and Technology Studies and spent her summers interning on Capitol Hill. She also spent a semester studying politics abroad at Oxford University.
