Benjamin Allison

Benjamin V. Allison is a Ph.D. student in history at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the history of US foreign and national security policy, especially toward the Middle East and Russia. A graduate of Kent State University (MA, 2020) and Grove City College (BA, 2018), Ben’s MA thesis examined American relations with a group of rejectionist Arabs, known as the Steadfastness and Confrontation Front, during and after the Camp David peace process. Among other things, he argues that the peace process and the coming of the Second Cold War were intimately connected. Ben hopes to continue this project for his dissertation, using Russian- and Arabic-language sources to paint a fuller picture of the transnational and international dimensions of this critical juncture in modern history. He has presented his research at numerous conferences and has several articles related to his project at various stages of the publishing process.

In addition to his historical work, Ben has also dabbled in political science methods. His first scholarly article was published in Perspectives on Terrorism in April 2021. Ben is currently drafting an invited policy paper on protecting American bridges and tunnels from terrorist attacks for Harvard’s Belfer Center, along with a scholarly article on why such attacks do not happen in the United States. He is also the lead author (with Samuel S. Stanton, Jr.) of a forthcoming monograph on the use of violence in jihadist insurgencies. As for his public-facing work, he has bylines at the https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-fix-the-jobs-crisis“>Chronicle of Higher Education Review, the Wilson Center’s Sources and Methods blog, Inkstick, RealClearHistory, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the https://www.faithandfreedom.com/author/benjamin-allison/“>Institute for Faith & Freedom at Grove City College. You can follow him on Twitter @BenVAllison, or email him at [email protected].