Polina Beliakova Assistant Professor SIS | Foreign Policy & Global Security

Degrees: PhD Fletcher School, Tufts University
Bio: Dr. Polina Beliakova is a scholar of international security focusing on civil-military relations and the use of force, with regional expertise in Russia and Ukraine. Being a native Ukrainian and Russian speaker, Dr. Beliakova collects data through elite interviews, fieldwork, archival research, and systematic review of local media sources, using quantitative and qualitative approaches for data analysis.

Her book project, Know Thy Military and Know Thyself, explains how governmental decisions about the use of force can weaken civilian control of the military even in states with historically coup-averse forces. The empirical chapters build on evidence from Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Beliakova's work has been published by Comparative Political Studies, Texas National Security Review, Perspectives on Terrorism, Foreign Affairs, War on the Rocks, POLITICO, and the Washington Post. Her expertise on the Russian defense sector, Ukraine's security sector governance, and Russia's post-Cold War use of force informed projects by the U.K. Government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Transparency International, and the World Peace Foundation, among others.

Prior to joining American University, Dr. Beliakova held research positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dartmouth College.

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