About Grant Golub

My name is Grant Golub and I'm an Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a PhD candidate in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). My dissertation looks at Henry Stimson, the War Department, and the politics of American grand strategy during World War II. More broadly, my research interests include the history of U.S. foreign policy, grand strategy, nuclear history, and Anglo-American relations. I'm originally from Sarasota, Florida. I completed my BA in History and American Studies from Princeton University and I have an MSc in the History of International Relations from LSE. I'm also a Hans J. Morgenthau Fellow at the Notre Dame International Security Center, a Junior Fellow with the International Policy Scholars Consortium and Network, and a Fellow at Defense Priorities, a Washington, DC foreign policy think tank.
Grant Golub is an Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a PhD candidate in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research focuses on the politics of American grand strategy during World War II.

NBN Episodes hosted by Grant:

Susan Colbourn, "Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons That Nearly Destroyed NATO" (Cornell UP, 2022)

March 14, 2023

Euromissiles

Susan Colbourn
Hosted by Grant Golub

In Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons That Nearly Destroyed NATO (Cornell UP, 2022), Susan Colbourn tells the story of the height of nuclear crisis and…

Melvyn P. Leffler, "Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq" (Oxford UP, 2023)

February 28, 2023

Confronting Saddam Hussein

Melvyn P. Leffler
Hosted by Grant Golub

America's decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003 is arguably the most important foreign policy choice of the entire post-Cold War era. Nearly two dec…

Pete Millwood, "Improbable Diplomats: How Ping-Pong Players, Musicians, and Scientists Remade US-China Relations" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

February 21, 2023

Improbable Diplomats

Pete Millwood
Hosted by Grant Golub

In 1971, Americans made two historic visits to China that would transform relations between the two countries. One was by US official Henry Kissinger;…

Gabriel Glickman, "US-Egypt Diplomacy Under Johnson: Nasser, Komer, and the Limits of Personal Diplomacy" (Bloombury, 2021)

February 5, 2023

US-Egypt Diplomacy Under Johnson

Gabriel Glickman
Hosted by Grant Golub

What happens to policies when a president dies in office? Do they get replaced by the new president, or do advisers carry on with the status quo? In N…

Greg Brew, "Petroleum and Progress in Iran: Oil, Development, and the Cold War" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

January 31, 2023

Petroleum and Progress in Iran

Greg Brew
Hosted by Grant Golub

From the 1940s to 1960s, Iran developed into the world's first “petro-state,” where oil represented the bulk of state revenue and supported an industr…

David S. Painter and Gregory Brew, "The Struggle for Iran: Oil, Autocracy, and the Cold War, 1951-1954" (UNC Press, 2023)

January 28, 2023

The Struggle for Iran

David S. Painter and Gregory Brew
Hosted by Grant Golub

Beginning with the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry in spring 1951 and ending with its reversal following the overthrow of Prime Minister M…

William Inboden, "The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink" (Dutton, 2022)

December 14, 2022

The Peacemaker

William Inboden
Hosted by Grant Golub

With decades of hindsight, the peaceful end of the Cold War seems a foregone conclusion. But in the early 1980s, most experts believed the Soviet Unio…

Jonathan R. Hunt, "The Nuclear Club: How America and the World Policed the Atom from Hiroshima to Vietnam" (Stanford UP, 2022)

December 1, 2022

The Nuclear Club

Jonathan R. Hunt
Hosted by Grant Golub

The Nuclear Club: How America and the World Policed the Atom from Hiroshima to Vietnam (Stanford UP, 2022) reveals how a coalition of powerful and dev…

Christopher Nichols and David Milne, "Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations: New Histories" (Columbia UP, 2022)

September 28, 2022

Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations

Christopher Nichols and David Milne
Hosted by Grant Golub

Ideology drives American foreign policy in ways seen and unseen. Racialized notions of subjecthood and civilization underlay the political revolution …

Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, "Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights: Contesting Morality in US Foreign Policy" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

December 8, 2021

Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights

Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard
Hosted by Grant Golub

Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights: Contesting Morality in US Foreign Policy (Cambridge UP, 2020) traces the role of human rights concerns in US forei…

Marc Gallicchio, "Unconditional: The Japanese Surrender in World War II" (Oxford UP, 2020)

November 24, 2021

Unconditional

Marc Gallicchio
Hosted by Grant Golub

Signed on September 2, 1945 aboard the American battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay by Japanese and Allied leaders, the instrument of surrender forma…

Lorena De Vita, "Israelpolitik: German-Israeli Relations, 1949-69" (Manchester UP, 2021)

October 7, 2021

Israelpolitik

Lorena De Vita
Hosted by Grant Golub

The rapprochement between Germany and Israel in the aftermath of the Holocaust is one of the most striking political developments of the twentieth cen…

Richard W. Maass, "The Picky Eagle: How Democracy and Xenophobia Limited U. S. Territorial Expansion" (Cornell UP, 2020)

September 14, 2021

The Picky Eagle

Richard W. Maass
Hosted by Grant Golub

The Picky Eagle: How Democracy and Xenophobia Limited U. S. Territorial Expansion (Cornell UP, 2020) explains why the United States stopped annexing t…

Elizabeth Borgwardt et al., "Rethinking American Grand Strategy" (Oxford UP, 2021)

September 14, 2021

Rethinking American Grand Strategy

Elizabeth Borgwardt, Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston
Hosted by Grant Golub

What is grand strategy? What does it aim to achieve? And what differentiates it from normal strategic thought--what, in other words, makes it "grand"?…

Joseph Stieb, "The Regime Change Consensus: Iraq in American Politics, 1990-2003" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

August 20, 2021

The Regime Change Consensus

Joseph Stieb
Hosted by Grant Golub

Why did the United States invade Iraq, setting off a chain of events that profoundly changed the Middle East and the US global position? In The Regime…

Simon Miles, "Engaging the Evil Empire: Washington, Moscow, and the Beginning of the End of the Cold War" (Cornell UP, 2020)

July 16, 2021

Engaging the Evil Empire

Simon Miles
Hosted by Grant Golub

In a narrative-redefining approach, Engaging the Evil Empire: Washington, Moscow, and the Beginning of the End of the Cold War (Cornell UP, 2020) dram…