Alumna Profile: Katherine Tiedemann, PPS ‘07

Recent Grad Does Research Work for New America Foundation

By Marquita McAlpine

Katherine Tiedemann (PPS ’07) researches nuclear weapons and nonproliferation policies at the New America Foundation. For her required PPS internship, she worked in the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research as a foreign media analyst in the summer of 2006.

“My degree in public policy studies, in conjunction with my internship, opened the door for me to apply for jobs in the think-tank world in Washington,” Tiedemann said.

She talked about her transition from college to her career field, as well as insight on her experiences with the New America Foundation. Recently her work has focused on the CIA’s controversial “extraordinary rendition” program, under which suspected terrorists are extra judicially transferred to countries where they are sometimes tortured.

As a researcher at the New America Foundation, what is your job like?

I contribute to the initiative’s aim of reducing the role of nuclear weapons in international security through research, writing and innovative programmatic efforts. Previously I was a research fellow working on issues ranging from global governance and the war on terror to the Cold War and Middle Eastern politics. I study nuclear weapons policy issues for Jeffrey Lewis, and work with Peter Bergen on terrorism research. I have been published in The Washington Post and Mother Jones and am currently working on several op-eds in these fields. [Both articles are available online: “ Disappearing Act: Rendition by the Numbers” and “Losing Afghanistan, One Civilian at a Time” ]

How did you get involved with The New America Foundation and work to find these cases? 

I knew I wanted to work in the think tank community in a foreign policy arena, and the New America Foundation offered the best opportunity for me to be involved with real policy research, as opposed to more mundane administrative positions. Having been Professor James Hamilton’s research assistant my senior year of college added more experience to my resume and indicated to my prospective employers that I was serious about carrying out both qualitative and quantitative research.

How and where do you retrieve information about cases like Abu Omar? 
[On suspicion of being involved with Al Qaeda, Abu Omar was abducted by CIA agents in Italy in 2003 and transferred to Egypt, where, he says he was tortured.]

Peter Bergen traveled to Egypt to interview Abu Omar in person. For The Rendition by the Numbers study we did for Mother Jones, we used all open source material. The research is based on reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU Law School, Andy Worthington’s The Guantanamo Files, Stephen Grey’s Ghost Plane and media accounts.

What are your current projects?

I’m working on a research paper with my boss, Jeffrey Lewis, about the status of U.S. nuclear weapons deployments in Europe. I’m trying to determine, using only open sources, how many nuclear weapons are at each air base, what planes are certified to carry nuclear weapons, the service lives of those planes, the training levels of the squadron commanders, and the politics of potentially withdrawing the weapons back to the U.S.

My thesis is that due to a demonstrated lack of host nation support for increased site security at air bases in Europe that house U.S. nuclear weapons and lack of public and political support, the potential danger of a security incident either from a terrorist organization or merely from protestors with cell phone cameras outweighs the benefits of keeping the weapons at the status quo locations. The nuclear weapons in Europe should be consolidated to one or two sites, possibly leading to an eventual withdrawal of all U.S. nuclear weapons based in Europe. Once the paper is completed, we will submit it to various publications and hope it gets picked up and put in print.