Nicole Grajewski

Nicole Grajewski is a Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research examines Russian and Iranian policies in the global nuclear order, with a particular focus on Russian nuclear strategy, Iran’s nuclear decision-making, contestation in the non-proliferation regime, and nuclear deterrence. She is completing her first book on the evolution of the Russia-Iran relationship from Syria to Ukraine, with Hurst Publishers.

Nicole is an Associate Researcher with the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs. Previously, she was a Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs, where she researched Russian civilian nuclear cooperation with Iran and Russian perspectives on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). She was also a Predoctoral Research Fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs. Nicole has been a Visiting Fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations and a Hans J. Morgenthau Grand Strategy Fellow with Notre Dame’s International Security Program.

Nicole completed her PhD at the University of Oxford in the Department of Politics and International Relations. Her dissertation, which studied Russian and Iranian perspectives on international order, received Oxford’s Pavry prize for the outstanding thesis in International Relations and an honorable mention from the British International Studies Association for the best doctoral thesis in International Studies. While completing her doctoral studies, Nicole conducted extensive archival fieldwork and elite interviews in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. She holds a master’s degree in Russian & East European Studies from the University of Oxford and a BA in International Affairs from George Washington University’s Elliott School.