Miriam Barnum

Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Purdue University. Previously, I was a Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Southern California in 2022.

I am interested in how and why states make particular arming choices, the relationship between economic factors and security outcomes such as arming and conflict, and the innovations in measurement necessary to advance the study of these relationships. My book project (in progress) asks why states choose to pursue chemical and biological weapons. Other ongoing research projects relate to arming choices more generally, international conflict, and nonproliferation and arms control, with a focus on applying computational measurement models to enhance our understanding of these substantive areas.