Welcome!

I am a Rosenwald Postdoctoral Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security at the Davidson Institute for Global Security at Dartmouth College, where I am also the Spencer Fellow. I earned my Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago in 2025.

My research focuses on international security, U.S. foreign policy, grand strategy, public opinion, and American political development. My work is united by an interest in the ways international politics influences society and politics at home.

My dissertation and book project, “The Local Legacies of War: Evidence from the American Way of War and Remembrance,” examines how wartime experiences shape the postwar politics of foreign policy. Focusing on the American experience in World War II, I contribute to theoretical debates about war’s impact on postwar politics, historical memory, and debates about the war’s role in building public support for the postwar U.S. foreign policy consensus.

My research has been published in Security Studies.

Beyond academia, I research and write on topics related to international politics, intelligence, influence operations, propaganda, and the domestic politics of U.S. foreign policy. My research has been supported by Stand Together Trust, the Institute for Humane Studies, and the University of Chicago’s Forum for Free Expression.

Previously, I served as a Ph.D. Fellow with the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, was a Hans J. Morgenthau Fellow at the Notre Dame International Security Center, and participated in Columbia University’s Summer Workshop on the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy, as well as the Summer Seminar on History and Statecraft sponsored by the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin.

I received my B.A. in history and economics from Wichita State University in my home state of Kansas.

I can be reached at matthew.j.conklin@dartmouth.edu.