Rachel Metz

Rachel Metz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at George Washington University. Metz’s research and teaching focus on international security, security assistance, military effectiveness, nuclear strategy, the organizational and bureaucratic drivers of defense policy, and methods for studying military operations. She is the author of “The Cult of the Persuasive: Why U.S. Security Assistance Fails” and “The Case for Campaign Analysis: A Method for Studying Military Operations” (with Andrew Halterman) in International Security, and her book project examines the United States’ approach to building militaries in partner states. Her work has been published in International Security, Security Studies, Foreign Affairs, H-Diplo, War on the Rocks, Lawfare, The National Interest, and The Washington Post, among other outlets.

Metz received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a member of the Security Studies Program. Her work has received funding from the Smith Richardson Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation. Previously, Metz was a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, an adjunct researcher for the RAND Corporation, and a Eurasia Group Fellow with the Eurasia Group Foundation. Metz is a research affiliate at MIT and an adjunct fellow in the defense program at the Center for New American Security (CNAS).