I am a PhD Student in History and Graduate Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin specializing in 20th century US foreign relations, especially vis-á-vis the Middle East and Russia. I am also the lead author of Die in Your Rage: The Logic of Violence in Jihadist Insurgency with Samuel S. Stanton (forthcoming).

A graduate of Kent State University (MA, 2020) and Grove City College (BA, 2018), my MA thesis examined American relations with a group of rejectionist Arabs, known as the Steadfastness and Confrontation Front, during and after the Camp David peace process. Among other things, I argue that the peace process and the coming of the Second Cold War were intimately connected. I hope to continue this project for my dissertation, using Bulgarian, Russian, and Arabic-language sources to paint a fuller picture of the transnational and international dimensions of this critical juncture in modern history.

In addition to my historical work, I have also dabbled in political science methods. I have authored scholarly articles on the ethics and politics of terrorism data and why terrorists don’t attack American bridges and tunnels. I am in the process of writing and revising several other articles, ranging from Jimmy Carter’s Middle East policy to the Freedom Rides to Anwar al-Sadat. As for my public-facing work, I have bylines at TIME (forthcoming), The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Wilson Center, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Inkstick, Not Even Past, RealClearHistory, and the Institute for Faith & Freedom at Grove City College. You can follow me on Twitter @BenVAllison.

See my curriculum vitae here.