Garrett Hinck is a PhD candidate in Political Science with a focus in International Relations at Columbia University and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at George Washington University. He studies the effects of technology on secrecy, signaling, and arms control, bridging Cold War nuclear competition to contemporary debates about emerging technologies and the future of strategic stability.
His dissertation, “Signaling Secrets: Strategic Intelligence, Technology, and the Sources and Methods Dilemma,” explores the conditions under which intelligence collection technologies can enable leaders to disclose covertly acquired knowledge about rivals’ capabilities, examining Cold War technical espionage and emerging technologies such as AI-enhanced ISR and space-based situational awareness.
He was an AIxNuclear Fellow at the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab and Council on Strategic Risks from 2025 to 2026, and a Hans J. Morgenthau pre-doctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame from 2024 to 2025. Previously, he worked at the RAND Corporation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His work has been published in War on the Rocks, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Lawfare, the Journal of National Security Law and Policy, and the Washington Post, and by the RAND Corporation, the Council on Strategic Risks, and the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. He holds a B.S. from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
