Welcome to my website!

I am an assistant professor of international security and law at George Mason University’s Schar School for Policy and Government. I am also an affiliate at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University & an adjunct non-resident fellow at the Program on Nuclear Issues (PONI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

I study how weaker states strategically shape international security institutions. My research argues that these states face a recurring dilemma: they aim to adjust the international order to address emerging threats while preventing powerful states from abusing any changes they achieve. I develop and test theories of this dynamic across multiple security domains, with a primary empirical focus on Latin America.

I previously was a Martin J. Sherwin Fellow with the History and Public Policy Program at the Wilson Center (2023), a Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2022), and a Social Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow with funding from the MacArthur Foundation (2022-2023) at CISAC. I hold a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in International Relations from El Colegio de México. I was a junior advisor to the Mexican Vice-Minister for Latin American Affairs before joining the Ph.D. program at Hopkins.

My work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Perspectives on Politics, International Affairs, the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, and Third World Quarterly. I have used my academic research to inform pieces I have published in policy-oriented outlets like The Washington Post, War on the Rocks, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

I am a member of international research communities studying international security, where I bring in my expertise on the Global South’s preferences, interests, and strategies. I regularly present my work at academic conferences, think tank workshops, and United Nations events.