Areas of Interest: International institutions and norms in security, nuclear weapons, human rights and the laws of war.
Nina Tannenwald joined the Watson Institute in 1997. Her articles have appeared in International Organization, International Security, International Studies Review, Yale Journal of International Law, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Journal of Strategic Studies, and Ethics and International Affairs, among others.
Tannenwald's book, The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Nonuse of Nuclear Weapons Since 1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2007), won the 2009 Lepgold Prize for best book in international relations. She has co-edited, with William Wohlforth, a special issue of the Journal of Cold War Studies on the role of ideas and the end of the Cold War. With support from the MacArthur Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, she is researching why some weapons are regarded as inhumane while others are not. Additional projects focus on inequality in the nuclear nonproliferation regime and targeted killings.
She has also launched a project, together with Matthew Evangelista of Cornell University, assessing the effectiveness of the Geneva Conventions humanitarian regime.
From 2003-2006 she served as director of Brown's International Relations Program. In 2006-2007 she was on leave at Cornell, teaching in the Government Department and the Peace Studies Program.
Tannenwald has been a commentator on radio, television, and op-ed pages on nuclear weapons issues. She also has been a consultant to the United Nations Association.
Before coming to the Watson Institute, she taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a master's degree from the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs and a PhD in international relations from Cornell University.