I am a PhD candidate in political science at Boston University.

I am currently a 2025–2026 U.S.–Asia Grand Strategy Predoctoral Fellow at the University of Southern California and a co-convener of the Project on the Political Economy of Security at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. Next year, I will join the International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs as a Predoctoral Research Fellow.

My dissertation addresses industrial mobilization for war, or how states convert economic resources into military power in wartime, by linking political economy with security studies.

My work has been 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 work has appeared in the Texas National Security Review and Defence Studies. Prior to graduate school, I worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, The Asia Group, and on the Japan Desk at the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

My manuscript “Leaders, Legislators and the Design of National Security Organizations” won the 2026 Patricia Weitsman Award from the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) of the International Studies Association (ISA).

I hold a BA in History and Japanese and an MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. I live outside Boston with my wife, our son, and our dog.

A copy of my latest CV is available here.

You can reach me at samgerstle@gmail.com.