2025 Grant Recipients
Investigating the Intersection Between Accelerationism, Ecofascism, and Climate-Driven Conflict (Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism)
Isabela Bernardo (previously Erica Barbarossa)
This paper investigates the convergence of two distinct but increasingly intertwined extremist currents—ecofascism and militant accelerationism—and examines the specific mechanisms through which these ideologies instrumentalize environmental crises for recruitment, mobilization, and the justification of violence. This work asks: how do these ideologies converge, through what mechanisms does this convergence operate, and what are its operational manifestations?
Accelerationism, Ecofascism, and Climate-Driven Conflict CT Report
Populism beyond Borders: Unpacking Erdogan’s support among Turkish Migrant Communities (Political Science)
Natalie Chwalisz and Sebnem Gumuscu
Origins of Conflict-Related Personality Traits (Psychology)
Marcia Collaer
From Weapons of War to Emblems of Peace: The Columbian Liberty Bell, Peace Plows, and the Possibilities of Collective Memorials (American Studies)
Ellery Foutch
A Better Bargain: Transforming Conflict Negotiation Processes Between Workers and Management (Sociology)
Jamie McCallum
We Shall Outlast Them: How Russia’s Conflict With the West Went Global (Center for Nonproliferation Studies)
Hanna Notte
From Conflict Predation to Stable Conservation: Leveraging Satellite Data for Illicit Economy Detection and Environmental Crime Resolution (Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism)
Katharine Petrich
Conflict Transformation in Sino-US Nuclear Relations (Center for Nonproliferation Studies)
William Potter, Siegfried Hecker, and Yanliang Pan
The US and China are engaged in heated competition in many domains, including with respect to international economic, political, and military influence. A fixation on Sino-U.S. competition and potential conflict, however, should not obscure the long history of bilateral cooperation in the peaceful applications of nuclear energy. While this cooperation has waned in recent years, one should be attentive to opportunities that may arise again in this sector. An understanding of past Sino-US engagement in the nuclear domain, including both instances of mistrust and adversarial competition and episodes of collaboration, may offer insights regarding how best to foster greater trust and recognition of shared interests in peaceful nuclear use and in the more sensitive areas of arms control and nonproliferation.
Conflict Transformation in Sino-US Nuclear Relations CT Report
Russian Society, Patriotic Attachment, and the Legacy of the Early 1990s (Economics)
William Pyle
This work addresses the degree to which exposure to the material and psychological traumas their country experienced in the early 1990s explains Russians ongoing attachment to illiberal political values, including a “blind and militant” patriotism. Findings suggest that some see the 1990s as having sewn the seeds for all that is bad in the twenty-first century; others regard it as an admittedly painful and frustrated step toward a freer, more prosperous post-communist society. This project attempts to shed light on the decade’s enduring meaning and influence.
Russian Society, Patriotic Attachment, and the Legacy of the Early 1990s CT Report
Using Conflict Transformation to Break Down Barriers to Cross-Border Financial Crime Investigations (Financial Crime Management; Nonproliferation & International and Global Studies)
Moyara Ruehsen and Jay Shapiro
Optimal Scheduling Under Conflict (Mathematics)
John Schmitt
Can novel techniques in algebra improve scheduling under conflict? The motivation inherent in our model is to schedule meetings that avoid conflicts and simultaneously minimize the number of scheduled meeting times. This number that we seek is known as the chromatic number; in general, this problem of determining the chromatic number is notoriously difficult. While various methods have been developed to determine this number or bound its value, it has been shown that the algebraic method of Noga Alon known as the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz is a powerful algebraic method for doing so. We now ask, are there refinements, extensions, and generalizations of Alon’s Combinatorial Nullstellensatz? If yes, what are these and how can they be established? If yes, what are the implications for this scheduling under conflict problem?