Simon Collard-Wexler

A native of Montreal, Canada, Simon is a PhD candidate in political science, a Trudeau Scholar, and a Pre-doctoral Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy program of the Brookings Institution. Simon's dissertation examines violent resistance to foreign occupations. There have been over 160 military occupations since 1900. In many cases, military occupations have led to bloody and protracted resistance. More than a mere byproduct of conflict, this resistance can be a decisive factor in inter-state war. Using a unique cross-national dataset of resistance, as well as case studies from Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Baltics, and Cambodia, Simon's dissertation seeks to explain under what conditions military occupations produce violent resistance. At Columbia University, Simon has also conducted research on civil war termination with the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, and has undertaken fieldwork in the South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo for the International Rescue Committee. Before attending Columbia, he served as strategic policy advisor on Afghanistan, policy advisor on continental defense, and senior research officer on nonproliferation, arms control, and disarmament at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. Prior to joining DFAIT he worked with the International Policy Institute at King's College London, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, and the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California. He received an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and completed his undergraduate degree in Political Science at McGill University and Sciences-Po Paris. Outside of work and school, Simon is a poor skier, a lousy sailor, and a terrible runner.