Melissa McAdam, Ph.D.

Melissa McAdam, Ph.D. is a research analyst with the Strategic Studies Research Team, in the Center for Stability and Development. In May 2012, she completed her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. McAdam’s dissertation, “Beat Cops and Battlegrounds: American Policing in Counterinsurgency,” explores the causes of trends in insurgent violence in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. She uses interviews with U.S. Marine Corps officers and fieldwork to examine how U.S. Marine battalions fostered security in Ramadi, Iraq (2005-2007) and Garmsir, Afghanistan (2009-2011). Her examination of Marines’ work with non-state security providers and fledgling security forces (police and army) bears on questions of policing (in the domestic and international context), MARSOC, and security force assistance more broadly.

Prior to joining CNA in May 2012, McAdam was a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University’s Elliott School in the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies. She has worked in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy and in Afghanistan, supporting Army operations. McAdam has also worked with the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point on a project about predicting and mitigating the unintended consequences of U.S. Government actions. She holds an M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Classics and Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and Magdalen College, Oxford.