Rosella Cappella Zielinski
Boston University
Rosella Cappella Zielinski is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston University and non-resident fellow at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Creativity at Marine Corps University. She specializes in study of political economy of security with an emphasis on how states mobilize their resources for war. Her specific research interests include war finance, defense budgets, military spending and inequality, economics of alliances, and coalitions in battle. Her book How States Pay for Wars (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2016), is the winner of the 2017 American Political Science Association Robert L. Jervis and Paul W. Schroeder Best Book Award in International History and Politics. Her other works can be found in the Journal of Peace Research, Conflict Management and Peace Science, Security Studies, European Journal of International Relations, Journal of Global Security Studies, as well as Foreign Affairs, Texas National Security Review, and War on the Rocks.
Undergraduate Syllabi
War, State, and Society in the Modern Era
This seminar examines three primary questions: What is war? How has war changed? What is the relationship between war, and other institutions, namely state formation, democracy, and social relations? This course, emphasizes warfare in the west, focusing on Europe and the United States, specifically how states fight wars (versus non-state actors) and how changes in warfare affect the relationship between state and society. While the stress of this course is wars of the 20th century, to understand how war has evolved, this course begins with wars of the middle ages.
Nuclear Security
How are nuclear weapons used? How are they managed? How should they be used? How should they be managed? What is the relationship between nuclear energy and nuclear security? This course seeks to answer these questions. It is designed to be “in real time.” It uses primary source documents to understand how the political / security environment was perceived by policy makers in the moment and highlights the individual decision-making, bureaucratic processes, and budgetary considerations that shaped nuclear weapon use and management.