Vipin Narang

Vipin Narang is the Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science and the inaugural director of MIT SSP’s Center for Nuclear Security Policy (CNSP). From March 2022 through August 2024, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and then Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, a portfolio with oversight over the US Department of Defense’s strategic capabilities, including nuclear, space, missile defense, and cyber policy. For his service, he was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. 

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. His second book, Seeking the Bomb: Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation, was published with Princeton University Press in 2022. His work has appeared in a variety of outlets including International Security, Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Washington Quarterly, International Organization, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. He was the recipient of the 2020 ISSS Emerging Scholar Award from the International Studies Association awarded to the scholar who “had made the most significant contribution to the field of security studies.”

He received his PhD from the Department of Government at Harvard University in 2010. He holds a BS and MS in chemical engineering with distinction from Stanford University and an MPhil in international relations with distinction 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, North Korea's nuclear weapons, South Asian security, and general security studies.