Heidi Hardt
Associate Professor of Political Science | UC Irvine
Irvine, CA, UNITED STATES
Heidi Hardt is an expert on NATO, defense, security, foreign policy, organizations, the EU, UN, operations, gender, climate and change.
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Biography
Prof. Heidi Hardt is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine and a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council via their Transatlantic Security Initiative. Her research focuses on NATO, European security, alliance politics, international organizations, knowledge, learning, change, gender and climate security. Prof. Hardt is the author of two books: NATO’s Lessons in Crisis: Institutional Memory in International Organization (Oxford 2018) and Time to React: The Efficiency of International Organizations in Crisis Response (Oxford University Press, 2014). She has published articles in PLOS One, Journal of Politics, PS: Political Science & Politics, European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Organizations, International Politics, European Security, Global Governance, African Security, Journal of Global Security Studies, Contemporary Security Policy, as well as publishing research in edited volumes and other venues. NSF, Fulbright, NATO, Carnegie and the IGCC have funded her research. She was a Fulbright Schuman Scholar and a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, during which time she worked for a Congresswoman, Senator and the State Department.
Areas of Expertise (10)
NATO
United Nations
European Union
Gender Issues
Climate Change
International Organizations
US Foreign Policy
Military Operations
Organizational Change
Defense
Accomplishments (1)
Lawrence S. Finkelstein Award, ISA International Organization Section (professional)
2011
Education (3)
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies: Ph.D., International Studies 2012
London School of Economics: M.S., European Studies (Research) 2006
University of Southern California: B.A., International Relations and Print Journalism 2005
Affiliations (6)
- American Political Science Association (APSA)
- International Studies Association (ISA)
- Women in Conflict Studies (WICS)
- Women of Color, Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS)
- World Affairs Council of Orange County, Irvine, California
- Council on Foreign Relations
Links (3)
Languages (1)
- French
Media Appearances (5)
Nato celebrating 75th anniversary
BBC tv
2024-04-04
Live interview discussing NATO, Russia and Ukraine and the NATO Summit
How NATO Is Adapting to Climate Change
IGCC online
2023-09-28
A new research project, led by UC Irvine associate professor of political science, Heidi Hardt, is exploring why—and how—member states are adapting NATO to climate change in certain areas but not in others. She and her co-author Jackie Burns argue that climate change is damaging NATO’s ability to collectively defend its 31 member states. In this interview, Dr. Hardt talks with IGCC associate director Lindsay Shingler to discuss their research evaluating NATO’s progress following the organization’s pledge to become a leader in understanding and adapting to the impact of climate change on security.
Sweden joining NATO a ‘very substantial step forward’: Analyst
CNA tv
2023-07-11
Sweden joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a long time coming, Dr Heidi Hardt, associate professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine, tells CNA’s Asia First. Sweden and Türkiye ironed out their differences in last-minute talks in Vilnius, Lithuania, where NATO on Tuesday kicked off its two-day summit focused on supporting Ukraine against Russia's invasion.
What does NATO stand to gain from Sweden becoming a member?
CNA online
2023-07-11
While it is a “very big step” for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to agree to push for Sweden’s ratification, Türkiye’s parliament still has to give its approval before the country can become a full member of NATO, noted Dr Heidi Hardt, associate professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine.
Russia must account for its war crimes, experts say
OC Register online
2022-04-26
Heidi Hardt, assistant professor of political science at UC Irvine, said the U.S. needs to understand the implications of a nuclear power invading a sovereign state.
Event Appearances (5)
“The New Domains of Conflict”
October 2024 | NATO: 75 Years of Strategic Solidarity Paris, France
Paper on NATO’s adaptation to climate threats
April 2024 | MIRTH (Monday International Relations Thoughts) Speaker Series Berkeley, CA
"Looking Back, Looking Ahead” panel
April 2024 |NATO at 75: Charting a New Course Washington, D.C.
“China’s and Russia’s strategic engagement in Africa vis-à-vis U.S./Western interests"
March 2024| Annual Royce Symposium Yorba Linda, CA
‘The U.S. and Multilateral Response to the Russia-Ukraine Crisis From Security, Economic, and Humanitarian Perspectives’
July 2023 | 2023 International Affairs Fellowship (IAF) Virtual Conference Washington, D.C. (Participated Virtually)
Research Grants (3)
Two-year grant to study climate adaptation at NATO
UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation $50,000
Jan 2023-Dec 2024
One-year fellowship to work for a U.S. government agency or international organization
Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars (CFR IAF – TIRS) $63,200
Sept 2021-Aug 2022
SBP: Diversity by the Book: Gender Representation in Political Science Graduate Training
National Science Foundation (NSF) Award – Political Science $10,455
Jul 2017-Aug 2018
Articles (5)
NATO after the invasion of Ukraine: how the shock changed alliance cohesion
International Politics2024 Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, experts predicted a NATO revival. The record on alliance cohesion, however, is mixed. Allies achieved consensus on some issues but not others. While some Alliance politics scholars and NATO experts assert that cohesion improved, new scholarship is needed to explain the nature of and changes in cohesion across NATO’s many issue areas. Leveraging organizational change scholarship, I argue that the extent to which an exogenous shock—here, the invasion of Ukraine—aligns with NATO’s mission can explain differences in cohesion on issue areas across three realms. To test the argument, I employ discourse analysis of high-level NATO documents, leader statements, relevant quotes from allied and NATO officials and public opinion polls (2010–2024).
Local engagement and US military attitudes toward gender integration: Evidence from Afghanistan
Contemporary Security Policy2024 As debates on gender integration growin the military and Women, Peace, and Security scholarship, security studies scholars and policy experts are scrutinizing the link between gender and operational effectiveness. This article argues that deployed experiences create opportunities for soldiers to observe women’s engagement with host communities, particularly local women - contributing to soldiers' improved attitudes toward gender integration. Employing interviews and an online survey with a total of 43 US active duty and veterans who served in ISAF in Afghanistan, we find that most who hadserved in mixed-gender units commended female soldiers’ interactions with local populations and linked these observations with improved assessments of the operating environment. By contrast, those in male-only units report more negative views.
Assessing racial/ethnic and gender gaps in political science phd students’ methodological self-efficacy
PS: Political Science & Politics2022 Most research on diversity within political methodology focuses on gender while overlooking racial and ethnic gaps. Our study investigates how race/ethnicity and gender relate to political science PhD students’ methodological self-efficacy, as well as their general academic self-efficacy. By analyzing a survey of 300 students from the top 50 US-based political science PhD programs, we find that race and ethnicity correlate with quantitative self-efficacy: students identifying as Black/African American and as Middle Eastern/North African express lower confidence in their abilities than white students. These gaps persist after accounting for heterogeneity among PhD programs, professional and socioeconomic status, and preferred methodological approach. However, small bivariate gender gaps disappear in multivariate analysis.
Having female role models correlates with PhD students’ attitudes toward their own academic success
PLoS One2021 Research indicates that increasing diversity in doctoral programs can positively affect students’ academic success. However, little research examines students’ responses to female scholars’ representation. The two studies presented here examine how students’ exposure to female academic role models shapes students’ attitudes toward their own academic success (i.e. self-efficacy). Such attitudes are critical because they predict student retention rates. In our first study, we randomly exposed 297 Ph.D. students in one academic discipline to either a gender-diverse (i.e. 30% female authors) or non-diverse syllabus in research methods (i.e. 10% female authors). We examined the effect of the intervention on students’ perceived likelihood of succeeding in the hypothetical course. Contrary to expectations derived from the literature, we found that increasing women’s representation in syllabi did not affect female students’ self-efficacy.
How to make elite experiments work in international relations
European Journal of International Relations2021 For decades, many International Relations (IR) scholars did not engage in elite experiments, because they viewed it as too risky, too costly, or too difficult to implement. However, as part of a behavioral turn in IR, a growing number of scholars have begun to adopt the method in their own research. This shift raises important questions. Under what conditions do elite experiments add value to IR scholarship? How can scholars overcome the logistical and ethical challenges of sampling such an elusive group? This article makes an original conceptual contribution to methodological debates on the role of behavioral approaches by analyzing experiments on foreign policy elites. We analyze the method’s strengths and weaknesses, evaluate ethical considerations, and present what is—to the best of our knowledge—the most comprehensive set of implementation guidelines.
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