Welcome!

I am a PhD candidate in political science at Boston University studying international relations and comparative politics. I am a 2025-2026 U.S. – Asia Grand Strategy Predoctoral Fellow at the University of Southern California as well as a co-organizer of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies’ Project on the Political Economy of Security.

My research interests include international security, state building, bureaucratic politics, and political economy. I also work on the foreign policy and politics of Japan and East Asia more broadly. For my dissertation project, I examine the political economy of industrial mobilization for war, or how states translate economic resources into military power during wartime and why some states are more effective at this than others.

Previously, I worked for the Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, at The Asia Group, and on the Japan Desk at the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

My research is supported by the Truman Library Institute, the Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation, the Center for Innovation in Social Science, and the Stand Together Trust. My published research can be found in the Texas National Security Review and Defence Studies. I hold a BA in History and Japanese and an MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

I live with my wife, 2-year-old son, and dog outside Boston.

You can reach me at sgerstle@bu.edu.