DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Interests

Research Interest(s): Political violence, international security, hostage taking and recovery, civil war, terrorism, negotiations

Program Area(s): International Relations; Comparative Politics

Subfield Specialties: Conflict Studies

Biography

Danielle Gilbert is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. Her research explores the causes and consequences of hostage taking in international security including projects on rebel kidnapping, hostage recovery policy, and hostage diplomacy. Her current book project examines why and how armed groups kidnap. It is based on her PhD dissertation, which received the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Merze Tate Award for the Best Dissertation in International Relations, Law, and Politics. Gilbert’s scholarship has been published in the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, International Studies Perspectives, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Terrorism & Political Violence, the Texas National Security Review, and the Journal of Political Science Education.

In 2023, Professor Gilbert was selected to serve on the Bipartisan Commission on Hostage Taking and Wrongful Detention at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. Gilbert frequently writes public commentary in outlets like Foreign Affairs, the Washington Post, USA Today, War on the Rocks, and Lawfare and has been interviewed by outlets including ABC, the BBC, CNN, ESPN, NBC, NPR, and The New York Times. She has advised the Australian, British, Canadian, and U.S. governments and the United Nations on hostage recovery policy and spoken about her research at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Before joining the faculty at Northwestern, Professor Gilbert was the Edelson Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College; an Assistant Professor of Military & Strategic Studies at the United States Air Force Academy; and a Minerva-Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace. Gilbert received her PhD in Political Science from the George Washington University, where she also served as a pre-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies. Gilbert received an MSc from the London School of Economics and her BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale.

Select Publications

•  Danielle Gilbert. 2024. “Partners in Crime: Comparative Advantage and Kidnapping Cooperation.” Comparative Political Studies, Online first. DOI: 10.1177/00104140241302726
• Danielle Gilbert, Paul Bezerra, and Karin Becker. 2024. “Instruction over Incentives: Assessing Reading Strategies for International Security Studies.” International Studies Perspectives, 25(3): 285–307. DOI: 10.1093/isp/ekad012
•  Karin Becker, Danielle Gilbert, and Paul Bezerra. 2023. “Promoting College Reading Completion and Comprehension with Reading Guides: Lessons Learned Regarding the Role of Form, Function, and Frequency.” Journal of Political Science Education, 20(1), 14–30. DOI: 10.1080/15512169.2023.2196634
• Danielle Gilbert. 2023. “The Oxygen of Publicity: Explaining U.S. Media Coverage of International Kidnapping.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 46(5): 618–639.
• Danielle Gilbert. 2022. “The Logic of Kidnapping in Civil War: Evidence from Colombia.” American Political Science Review, 116(4): 1226–1241.
• Danielle Gilbert and Kyleanne Hunter. 2022. “The Spectrum of Conflict and Range of Military Operations.” Military Strategy, Joint Operations, and Airpower, 2nd ed., Georgetown University Press.
• Danielle Gilbert and Gaëlle Rivard Piché. 2021/2022. “Caught Between Giants: Hostage Diplomacy and Negotiation Strategy for Middle Powers.” Texas National Security Review. (Winter 2021/2022), 5(1): 11–32.
• Danielle Gilbert. 2020. “The Politics and Pedagogy of Nationalism: Authentic Learning on Identity and Conflict.” Journal of Political Science Education. 17(1): 926–937.

Public Engagement

• “The politics behind Marc Fogel’s release from a Russian prison,” Good Authority, February 15, 2025.
• “U.S. hostage policy will be quite different under Trump,” Good Authority, December 18, 2024.
• “Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, and Alsu Kurmasheva are back in the U.S.,” Good Authority, August 3, 2024.
• “Navigating the unthinkable: a Russian prison sentence,” Good Authority, May 22, 2024.
• “Good to Know: Hostage taking and the rise in hostage diplomacy,” Good Authority, January 17, 2024.
• "Brittney Griner is free. Here are 5 takeaways," The Washington Post, December 12, 2022.
• "Why State Kidnappings Are on the Rise,"  VICE News, "System Error," November 17, 2022.
• "What the Taliban prisoner swap means for the US and other Americans detained abroad," ABC News Live, September 20, 2022.
• "The Prisoners Dilemma: America Must Adapt to a New Era of Hostage-Taking,"  Foreign Affairs, August 24, 2022.
• "Brittney Griner's wife demands the U.S. do more to have Russia release her,"  NPR Weekend Edition, July 9, 2022.
• "Danielle Gilbert on Brittney Griner and U.S. Hostage Policy," Washington Journal/C-SPAN, July 8, 2022.
• "Ransomware Lessons for a Nation Held Hostage,"  Lawfare, September 12, 2021.

Awards

• Best Article Award, International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association (2024)
• Honorable Mention, Alexander L. George Article Award for the best article applying qualitative methods, American Political Science Association QMMR section (2023)
• Civilian of the Quarter, U.S. Air Force Academy Social Sciences (2022)
• Merze Tate Award for the Best Dissertation in International Relations, Law, and Politics, American Political Science Association (2021)
• Semi-finalist, Janne Nolan Prize for the Best Article on National/ International Affairs (2021)
• Best Independent Instructor in Political Science, George Washington University (2019)
• "New Faces" in International Security, Triangle Institute for Security Studies (2019)"