Jessica Weeks, assistant professor of government, has been awarded a Junior Faculty Research Grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation for her book project "Dictators at War." Her project examines how domestic politics affect authoritarian leaders' decisions about war, peace and international cooperation.

Each year, the foundation awards several grants of $60,000 to support tenure-track junior faculty engaged in the research and writing of a scholarly book on an issue or topic of interest to the policy community.

Weeks has a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University and a master's in international history and politics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Her research and teaching interests include international security, domestic sources of foreign policy and the politics of authoritarian regimes.