Mako, Shifrinson Join Pardee School Faculty
The Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University is pleased to welcome to its faculty two new members — Shamiran Mako, Assistant Professor of International Relations, and Joshua Shifrinson, Assistant Professor of International Relations.
“I am delighted to welcome our two new faculty members to the Pardee School and Boston University community,” said Pardee School Dean Adil Najam. “Each will bring further depth to the Pardee School’s existing strengths while helping the school meet its strategic goals and mission of advancing human progress.”
Mako’s research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics with a focus on authoritarianism, civil wars, democratization, institutional capacity building, governing in divided societies, and American foreign policy with a regional interest on the Middle East and North Africa. Specifically, she explores the historical and contemporary drivers of inter and intra-state conflicts that produce weak and fragile states and examines ways in which successful conflict mitigating strategies relating to post-conflict state and peacebuilding can be applied to states in the MENA region.
“I am delighted to be joining the Pardee School and becoming part of an incredibly diverse environment that fosters interdisciplinary research and collaboration and to be among colleagues who tackle complex global problems within the academy and the wider policy arena,” Mako said.
Her first book project traces the institutional legacies of ethnic conflict in Iraq. It examines the ways in which historically embedded structural and institutional constraints in segmentally divided authoritarian polities like Iraq frame subsequent patterns of ethnic dominance and modes of inclusion and exclusion from state power, which in turn shape the mobilization calculus of communal groups during critical statebuilding periods.
“Shamiran Mako brings to the Pardee School deep scholarly and personal knowledge of the modern Middle East. Herself a refugee from the First Gulf War, she has dedicated her career to understanding the causes and consequences of order and conflict in the region,” said William Grimes, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Pardee School. “She has already published extensively on topics of interest to scholars, policymakers, and students including the Arab Spring, ethnic conflict, and governance in Iraq. She is also an experienced teacher who will bring in important suite of classes to the School.”
Shifrinson’s teaching and research interests focus on the intersection of international security and diplomatic history, particularly the rise and fall of great powers and the origins of grand strategy. He has special expertise in great power politics since 1945 and U.S. engagement in Europe and Asia. His book, Rising Titans, Falling Giants: How Great Powers Exploit Power Shifts (Cornell University Press, 2018) builds on extensive archival research focused on U.S. and Soviet foreign policy after 1945 to explain why some rising states challenge and prey upon declining great powers, while others seek to support and cooperate with declining states.
“It’s a real privilege and honor to join Pardee,” Shifrinson said. “BU has a rich tradition in international relations, and I’m thrilled to have the opporunity to contribute to an institution producing cutting-edge research and training policy-oriented and academically-informed students! I’m particularly excited to get to know my new colleagues and the Pardee student body, and start teaching an array of classes in international security affairs.”
Shifrinson said he is looking forward to speaking with students – especially those interested in international security and security studies – about courses, policy engagement, and research.
He has additional related projects on U.S. grand strategy, the durability of NATO, U.S. relations with its allies during and after the Cold War, and the rise of China. His work has appeared with International Security, the Journal of Strategic Studies, Foreign Affairs, and other venues. His next major project examines American foreign policy in the 1990s and early 2000s to explain how great powers try to stop challengers from emerging.
“Josh Shifrinson has already established himself as one of the leading strategy and security scholars of his generation. His new book, Rising Titans, Falling Giants, promises to help set the intellectual agenda in the emerging scholarly literature on rising powers in the global system,” said Grimes. “He is also deeply involved in current policy debates, including Track II dialogues and publishing in high-visibility venues like Foreign Affairs and War on the Rocks. He will give our students the opportunity to engage with cutting-edge scholarship and policy debate on security issues.”