Professor of International Studies; Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Washington
Saadia M. Pekkanen is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. In addition to this appointment in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, she is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Science, and Adjunct Professor at the School of Law where she also teaches courses. She earned Master’s degrees from Columbia University and Yale Law School, and a doctorate from Harvard University in political science.
Her research reflects her training in international relations and international law, spanning the law and policy of outer space affairs, the geopolitics of critical infrastructure investment, and the foreign affairs of Japan in Asia and the world. She has published a half dozen book on these themes, bringing together economic, political, and legal strands to better analyze the changing fortunes of the contemporary world order.
She is strongly interested in connecting academic research to the broader policy world and the general public. Every class she teaches and every academic program she innovates aims to build a platform that educates and trains students to advance their own work, and to communicate its meaning and relevance to audiences beyond the ivory tower. This ethos guides her scholarship, teaching, and her own policy-relevant activities. She serves as Co-Chair of the U.S.-Japan Space Forum, and directs both the Space Security Initiative and the Emerging Frontiers project at the University of Washington.
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Nov 14, 2018 12:18 pm UTC| Science
As an international relations scholar who studies space law and policy, I have come to realize what most people do not fully appreciate: Dealing with space debris is as much a national security issue as it is a technical...
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