David M. Allison

David M. Allison is a fellow at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs’ Nuclear Security Program, part of International Security Studies.

He is a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School. Dave’s work draws on experimental and archival methods to examine the foundations of nuclear deterrence and threats to strategic stability. He has conducted research in Iraq, Japan, South Korea, and the United States, and has published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, International Security, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Nonproliferation Review, and The National Interest. Dave is a member of the 2023 Mid-Career Cadre with the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Project on Nuclear Issues.

Prior to academia, Dave served as an officer in the United States Army. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from Yale University and a B.A. with highest honors in Political Science from Columbia University.

Dave's current research program focuses on the psychological underpinnings of attitudes surrounding nuclear weapons. His projects include studies on the efficacy of local political activism in increasing support for the Nuclear Ban Treaty, on the role of target nationality and race in determining the appropriateness of employing "taboo" weapons of mass destruction, and on the risk of attribution substitution by laypeople and experts when evaluating technologically complex weapons systems. Dave is also involved in the Data for Deterrence Project, building a dataset to code nuclear moments of danger and other near-miss incidents.