Beenish Pervaiz

Beenish Pervaiz is the 2025-2026 Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow in the MIT Security Studies Program. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Brown University in 2025. Her research focuses on nuclear politics, force structure development, and the influence of external actors on South Asian security dynamics. She previously served as a Predoctoral Research Fellow with the Project on Managing the Atom and the International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center from 2024 to 2025. Her work has been supported by the USIP–Minerva Peace and Security Scholar Fellowship (2023–2024) and Brown University’s Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia. She holds a Master’s in International Policy Studies from Stanford University, specializing in international security and cooperation, and has contributed to international security policy through roles with the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.