Directors
Dani Gilbert is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and a Fellow with Bridging the Gap. Her research explores the causes and consequences of hostage taking in international security, including projects on rebel kidnapping, hostage recovery policy, and hostage diplomacy. Dani’s research has been published in the American Political Science Review, International Studies Perspectives, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Terrorism & Political Violence, the Texas National Security Review, and the Journal of Political Science Education, and she has written for outlets including Foreign Affairs, the Washington Post, War on the Rocks, Lawfare, and Good Authority. She is a member of the Bipartisan Commission on Hostage Taking and Wrongful Detention at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC and has advised the British, Canadian, and U.S. governments on hostage recovery policy. Before joining the faculty at Northwestern, Dani was a Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security Dartmouth College, an Assistant Professor of Military & Strategic Studies at the United States Air Force Academy, and a Minerva-Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace.
Andrew W. Reddie is an Associate Research Professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, and Founder of the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab. His research at the intersection of technology, politics, and security examines how technology shapes international order—with a focus on nuclear weapons policy, cybersecurity, AI governance, and innovation. His methodological work focuses on the use of experiments and wargaming methods. Andrew serves in faculty leadership roles at UC Berkeley’s Center for Security in Politics, the Berkeley APEC Study Center, and UC-wide Disaster Resilience Network. He is also an affiliate of UC Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies, the Institute of East Asian Studies, and the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, as well as the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Andrew received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford University and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2019.
Suparna Chaudhry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Affairs at Lewis & Clark College and an Affiliated Scholar with the International Justice Lab at the College of William & Mary. Her research focuses on human rights, international law, and political violence, with a specific focus on the causes and consequences of state persecution of NGOs and activists. In 2018, she received the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Human Rights Section's award for Best Dissertation, as well as the International Studies Association's (ISA) Best Human Rights Paper Award. She also received the Robert O. Keohane Award for best article published by a junior scholar in International Organization for 2022. Her work has been published in International Organization, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Human Rights, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Global Policy, as well as The Washington Post.
Previously, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University's Department of Political Science, an M.A. from the Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in History (Honors) from St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi.
Rachel Elizabeth Whitlark is Associate Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 2024, she served as Senior Nuclear Deterrence Policy Advisor on the Nuclear Deterrence Policy team in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction. For her work, Whitlark earned the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service. Whitlark is also a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a Director with Bridging the Gap.
Previously, she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Project on Managing the Atom and International Security Program within the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Security Studies Program. Whitlark’s scholarship examines nuclear proliferation, counterproliferation, and foreign policy decision-making. Her book, All Options on the Table: Leaders, Preventive War, and Nuclear Proliferation (Cornell University Press 2021), investigates American and Israeli decision-making regarding the use of preventive military force as a counter-proliferation strategy. Her work has been published in such journals as Security Studies, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, and International Studies Perspectives, as well as in policy outlets including The Washington Quarterly, Texas National Security Review, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Survival. She has also written for War on the Rocks, The Duck of Minerva, The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, and TheWeek.com. She holds a PhD in political science from the George Washington University, an MA in international policy studies from Stanford University, and a BA in international affairs, also from George Washington