Mailing address
One Brattle Square 503
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Mailbox 134
Cambridge, MA, 02138
T. Negeen Pegahi
Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
Contact:
Telephone: 617-495-8995
Fax: 617-496-0606
Email: negeen_pegahi@hks.harvard.edu
Experience
T. Negeen Pegahi is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Chicago. Her research interests focus on international relations theory and security studies, specifically the causes and consequences of nuclear proliferation.
Her Ph.D. dissertation, “Dangerous Deterrent? A Rational Theory of the Consequences of Nuclear Proliferation for Existing Nuclear Powers,” lays out the conditions under which the acquisition of nuclear weapons can embolden states to do things they otherwise would not do against stronger, nuclear-armed adversaries; the frequency with which these conditions obtain; and the severity of their effects. She uses game-theoretic models and comparative-historical case studies to show that existing work understates the stringency of these conditions, overstates the frequency with which they will obtain, and overstates the severity of their effects, thereby mischaracterizing weak states’ motives for acquisition and inflating the strategic threat posed by proliferation to existing nuclear powers.
Negeen has received fellowships from the United States Institute of Peace, the University of Chicago, and the Foreign Language Area Studies Program. Prior to entering graduate school, she worked as a Research Assistant at RAND and served as a Fulbright Scholar in Pakistan. She received an M.A. in Political Science at the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Chinese and Political Science from Williams College.
