Sharon Weiner Associate Professor Foreign Policy & Global Security
- Degrees
- PhD, political science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MA, University of Lancaster (UK)
BS, Northeast Missouri State University; BA, Northeast Missouri State University - Bio
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Sharon K. Weiner is Associate Professor at the School of International Service.
Sharon's research, teaching, and policy engagement are at the intersection of organizational politics and U.S. national security. Her current work focuses on the theory, practice, and social construction of deterrence, the politics of U.S. nuclear weapon modernization programs, and larger issues of civil-military relations. Her most recent book, Managing the Military: The Joint Chiefs of Staff and Civil-Military Relations (Columbia University Press, 2022) analyzes the power of the JCS chairman to help or hinder the president's ability to implement their defense policy preferences.
She also collaborates with Moritz Kutt (Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg) on The Nuclear Biscuit (thenuclearbiscuit.org), a virtual reality experience involving a nuclear crisis. The project analyses how people make high stakes national security decisions under conditions of uncertainty.
From August 2014 through February 2017, Sharon served as a program examiner with the National Security Division of the White House Office of Management and Budget, where she had responsibility for budget and policy issues related to nuclear weapons and nonproliferation. Her previous government service includes the Joint Staff's Strategic Plans and Policy directorate, the House Armed Services Committee, and as an advisor to the office of a U.S. Senator. She has also held research positions at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Center for National Security Studies.
From 2022-2024 Sharon was the Senior Resident Fellow at the Carnegie Corporation of New York. She is currently a visiting researcher at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security.
Sharon's book Our Own Worst Enemy? Institutional Interests and the Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Expertise (MIT Press 2011) explored the role of organizational and partisan politics in the success and failure of U.S. cooperative nonproliferation programs with the former Soviet Union. The book won the 2012 Louis Brownlow award from the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration for its “outstanding contribution to the literature of public administration [and] new insights and original ideas about the role and behavior of governmental institutions and programs in the area of national security.”
Her scholarly work has appeared in International Security, Political Science Quarterly, Polity, The Nonproliferation Review, Daedalus, Contemporary Security Policy, as well as other journals.
She holds a PhD in Political Science from MIT’s Security Studies Program. Her other awards include:- Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, 2018-2020
- Darrell Randall Award for Service to the Community, SIS, 2017
- Nuclear Challenge Grant, MacArthur Foundation, 2015-2016
- Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship in Nuclear Security, 2014-2015
- F. Gunther Eyck Award for Service, SIS, 2015
- Outstanding Scholarship, Research, and Professional Contributions, SIS, 2013
- Louis Brownlow Award, U.S. National Academy of Public Administration, 2012
- William Crowell Award for Outstanding Teaching, SIS, 2011
- Visiting Scholar Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005-2006
- Robert Jay Lifton Fellowship for Teaching Nuclear Weapons Issues, 2004-2005
- Scholar of Vision Award, Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2001-2003
- Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, 2018-2020
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Teaching
Fall 2024
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SIS-653 Topics in U.S. Foreign Policy: Nuclear Weapons: Pol & Prolif
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SIS-899 Doctoral Dissertation
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SISU-419 Senior Capstone: Int'l Studies: Nuclear Weapons & Int'l Pol
Spring 2025
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SIS-653 Topics in U.S. Foreign Policy: Politics of Us Defense Policy
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SISU-106 First Year Seminar: Nuclear Weapons and Politics
AU Experts
Area of Expertise
U.S. national security, nuclear weapons strategy and force structure, nonproliferation, civil-military relations, U.S. foreign policy, U.S. defense policy
Additional Information
Sharon K. Weiner is an international expert on nuclear weapons politics, strategy, and force structure and the organizational politics and U.S. national security policy more broadly. Her current work focuses on the theory, practice, and social construction of deterrence and the politics of U.S. nuclear weapon modernization programs. Her book, Our Own Worst Enemy? Institutional Interests and the Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Expertise, won the 2012 Louis Brownlow award from the National Academy of Public Administration. Her articles have been published in International Security, Political Science Quarterly, The Nonproliferation Review, as well as other journals. Prof. Weiner’s research has been featured in print, online, and broadcast media outlets including The New York Times, Politico, War on the Rocks, Kommersant, and ZDF.
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.