Zachary Burdette

Zach Burdette is a PhD graduate from the MIT Department of Political Science and was affiliated with the Center’s Security Studies Program. Zach is an adjunct researcher at the RAND Corporation, where he has worked on projects related to U.S. grand strategy, defense planning, and escalation management. He was a pre-doctoral research fellow in the International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. His dissertation examines how states manage their trade relationships with their security competitors. His other research focuses primarily on the military balance in the Western Pacific. Prior to MIT, he graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University with a BS in Foreign Service and an MA in Security Studies.