Vipin Narang

Biography

Vipin Narang is an Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT and a member of MIT’s Security Studies Program. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Government, Harvard University in May 2010, where he was awarded the Edward M. Chase Prize for the best dissertation in international relations. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering with distinction from Stanford University and an M. Phil with Distinction in international relations from Balliol College, Oxford University, where he studied on a Marshall Scholarship. He has been a fellow at Harvard University’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, a predoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and a Stanton junior faculty fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. His research interests include nuclear proliferation and strategy, South Asian security, and general security studies.

His first book Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era (Princeton University Press, 2014) on the deterrence strategies of regional nuclear powers won the 2015 ISA International Security Studies Section Best Book Award. He is currently working on his second book, Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation (Princeton University Press, under contract), which explores how states pursue nuclear weapons.  His work has been published in several journals including International Security, Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Washington Quarterly,and International Organization.

Research

Narang's research interests include nuclear proliferation, South Asian security, quantitative conflict studies, international relations theory, and general security studies.

Recent Publications

"Democratic Accountability and Foreign Security Policy: Theory and Evidence From India," Security Studies, January 8, 2018. With Paul Staniland. link.

"Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation: How States Pursue the Bomb" International Security, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Winter 2016/17), pp. 110–150. pdf

“Civil-Military Pathologies and Defeat in War: Tests Using New Data,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, January 2017. With Caitlin Talmadge. link

Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era: Regional Powers and International Conflict. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014. link

Vipin Narang, "What Does it Take to Deter? Regional Power Nuclear Postures and International Conflict," Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 57, no. 3 (June, 2013), pp. 478-508. link.

Teaching

News

North Korea's Nuclear Program Isn't Going Anywhere

August 13, 2018 Ankit Panda and Vipin Narang Foreign Affairs

Two Months After Singapore, Kim Clearly Has the Upper Hand

"The overall importance of the Sohae missile site has also likely diminished for Pyongyang"

-Vipin Narang

July 23, 2018 The Wall Street Journal

“Trump’s tweet betrays the fundamental problem: He thinks it was a contract and a unilateral agreement to denuclearize”

-Vipin Narang

July 10, 2018 Foreign Policy

"None of this activity technically violates any agreement...What it suggests is that Kim has no intention of surrendering his nuclear weapons."

-Vipin Narang

July 2, 2018 The New York Times

"North Korea has had a decade-long nuclear testing sequence where they have presumably learned a lot about designs...they can improve components and perfect designs with subcritical and hydrodynamic tests which we wouldn't be able to monitor or detect."

-Vipin Narang

June 27, 2018 CNN

"The Economist may have said 'Kim Jong Won,' " Narang said, referring to a pun on the magazine's cover about the summit, "but it really should've been Xi Jinping winning."

-Vipin Narang

June 20, 2018 CNN

North Korea Is a Nuclear Power. Get Used to It.

June 12, 2018 Vipin Narang and Ankit Panda The New York Times

North Korea has arrived as a nuclear power, and there is no going back. Once the reality-show theatrics of the Singapore summit meeting subside, we are left with the reality that North Korea was just recognized as a de facto nuclear weapons power.