Biography
Rachel Esplin Odell is a PhD candidate in international relations and comparative politics and a member of the MIT Security Studies Program. She is also an International Security Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft (on leave until August 2020). Her dissertation explains differences in states’ interpretation of the international law of the sea and the evolution in those interpretations over time. Her broader research interests include the nature and future of world order, U.S. strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, Chinese foreign policy, and crisis management in Northeast Asia.
Odell previously worked as a Research Analyst in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. At Carnegie, she co-authored several policy reports and articles, organized public forums and Track II workshops, and prepared and participated in briefings to officials in the White House, Congress, State Department, Pentagon, and U.S. intelligence community, as well as broader foreign policy communities in Washington, Beijing, Tokyo, and Seoul.
Odell is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Smith Richardson Foundation World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship, and the Alexander George Award for Best Graduate Student Paper from the Foreign Policy Analysis Section of the International Studies Association. In November 2017, she was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University in Tokyo. In spring 2017, she served as the Acting Allston Burr Assistant Dean of Harvard College for Mather House, where she has been a Resident or Nonresident Tutor since 2014. She holds an AB summa cum laude in East Asian Studies with a secondary field in Government from Harvard University and has advanced proficiency in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
Biography
Rachel Esplin Odell is a PhD candidate in international relations and comparative politics and a member of the MIT Security Studies Program. She is also an International Security Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft (on leave until August 2020). Her dissertation explains differences in states’ interpretation of the international law of the sea and the evolution in those interpretations over time. Her broader research interests include the nature and future of world order, U.S. strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, Chinese foreign policy, and crisis management in Northeast Asia.
Odell previously worked as a Research Analyst in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. At Carnegie, she co-authored several policy reports and articles, organized public forums and Track II workshops, and prepared and participated in briefings to officials in the White House, Congress, State Department, Pentagon, and U.S. intelligence community, as well as broader foreign policy communities in Washington, Beijing, Tokyo, and Seoul.
Odell is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Smith Richardson Foundation World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship, and the Alexander George Award for Best Graduate Student Paper from the Foreign Policy Analysis Section of the International Studies Association. In November 2017, she was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University in Tokyo. In spring 2017, she served as the Acting Allston Burr Assistant Dean of Harvard College for Mather House, where she has been a Resident or Nonresident Tutor since 2014. She holds an AB summa cum laude in East Asian Studies with a secondary field in Government from Harvard University and has advanced proficiency in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.