Miriam Barnum

Miriam Barnum is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and a faculty member in the Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts program.

Previously, Barnum was a Stanton Nuclear Security postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. She received a Ph.D. in political science and international relations from the University of Southern California in 2022.

Barnum’s research focuses on how and why states make particular arming choices, the relationship between economic factors and security outcomes such as arming and conflict, and the innovations in measurements necessary to advance the study of these relationships. Her book project, in progress, explores how internal and external security threats shape states’ choices to pursue chemical and biological weapons. Other projects relate to arming investment, international conflict, and nonproliferation and arms control, with a focus on applying computational measurement models to enhance our understanding of these substantive areas.