Ford Security Seminar

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