Sarah Bidgood

Sarah Bidgood is a postdoctoral fellow in technology and international security at the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), based in Washington, D.C. Her research focuses on nuclear diplomacy and military innovation in the United States and Russian Federation. Sarah holds a B.A. in Russian from Wellesley College, an M.A. in Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.A. in nonproliferation and terrorism studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. In July, Sarah successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London, which examined the impact of Cold War nuclear crises on U.S.-Soviet arms control.

From 2023-2024, Sarah was a Stanton nuclear security fellow in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program. Prior to this, she served as director of the Eurasia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, where she remains a non-resident scholar. Sarah’s work has been published in journals such as International Security, Cold War History, the Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, and The Nonproliferation Review, as well as outlets including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Arms Control Today, and War on the Rocks. She is a coauthor of Death Dust: The Rise, Decline, and Future of Radiological Weapons Programs, which was published by Stanford University Press in December 2023.

Plans for Fellowship: During the fellowship period, Sarah will conduct new research on the relationship between nuclear crises and arms control using empirical data derived from the archival record and other primary sources. Her focus will be on producing a full-length book monograph and series of articles for publication.