Kimberly Marten is a professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University, specializing in international relations, international security, environmental politics, and Russia. She is a faculty member and executive committee member of Columbia’s Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, and Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. Her recent publications have analyzed Russia’s Wagner Group “private” military company (she was honored to testify before Congress on that topic in 2020 and 2022), Russian activities in Latin America (she was honored to testify before Congress on that topic in 2022); Russian activities in Africa; Russia/NATO relations and the Russian reaction to NATO enlargement; and the politics of the changing Arctic.
She has written four books, including Engaging the Enemy: Organization Theory and Soviet Military Innovation (Princeton, 1993), which received the Marshall Shulman Prize, and Warlords: Strong-Arm Brokers in Weak States (Cornell, 2012). The Council on Foreign Relations commissioned her special report, Reducing Tensions between Russia and NATO (2017). In addition to over 30 academic journal articles and book chapters, she has written more than 50 policy analyses in publications including the Washington Quarterly, Foreign Affairs online, War on the Rocks, Lawfare, the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog, the Huffington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian, the New York Daily News, and the New Republic, among others. She gives frequent invited presentations to the policy community in the U.S. and abroad. She is also a frequent media commentator, and appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She earned her A.B. at Harvard and Ph.D. at Stanford. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Climate-related issues, Ethnic discrimination or persecution, Ex-combatant reintegration, Forced conscription, Gang-related violence/non-state actors, Journalist persecution, LGBTQ, Military/police service, Political persecution, Prison conditions, Religious discrimination or persecution, Government/state actor persecution, Risk of retaliation, Torture, (1) The Wagner Group and other Russian "private" military companies; (2) the human rights and religious policies of warlord Ramzan Kadyrov in the Russian province of Chechnya; (3) the politics of the Russian Arctic
I have written 4 affidavits for Russian asylum cases in the U.S. Three of these were individuals who had engaged in political dissent/protests, with one of those also including family targeting/punishment questions; the fourth focused on LGBTQ+ issues.
"Russian Foreign Paramilitary Outfits beyond Wagner," Russian Analytical Digest no. 303 (Oc 18, 2023): 12-16.
"Whither Wagner? The Consequences of Prigozhin’s Mutiny and Demise," Survival (IISS) 65, no. 5 (2023): 45-64.
"Why the Wagner Group Cannot Be Easily Absorbed by the Russian Military—and What That Means for the West," Russia Matters (Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center), Sept. 1, 2023.
"The perplexing aftermath of the Wagner mutiny shows Putin is more vulnerable than ever," The Guardian, Aug. 4, 2023.
“Geopolitics and Security in the Changing Arctic,” chapter 2 in Climate Change, Conflict a (In)Security: Hot War, ed. Timothy Clack, Ziya Meral, and Louise Selisny (Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge/Taylor & Francis, forthcoming Dec. 2023).
"NATO Enlargement: Evaluating its Consequences in Russia," in Evaluating NATO Enlargement: From Cold War Victory to the Russia-Ukraine War, ed. James Goldgeier and Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), pp. 209-249, reprinted and updated from its initial publication in International Politics 57 (2020): 401-426.
"Russia’s Use of the Wagner Group: Definitions, Strategic Objectives, and Accountability testimony before the Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on National Security, United States House of Representatives, Sept. 15, 2022.
"Russian Military and Economic Interests and Influence in Latin America and the Caribbea Threats, Limits, and U.S. Policy Recommendations," testimony before the Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security, Migration, and International Economic Policy, United States House of Representatives, July 20, 2022.
"Finland's New Frontier: Will Russia Seek to Disrupt Helsinki's NATO Bid?" ForeignAffairs.com, May 4, 2022.
"President Putin’s Rationality and Escalation in Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine," PONARS-Eurasia Policy Memo 756, Mar. 9, 2022.
"How This Invasion Threatens NATO: Seeing Putin's Gameplan," New York Daily News, Feb. 25, 2022.
Essay in "NATO Expansion in Retrospect," H-Diplo International Security Studies Forum Policy Roundtable 12-1, Oct. 19, 2020.
"Where’s Wagner? The All-New Exploits of Russia’s 'Private' Military Company," PONARS-Eurasia Policy Memo 670, Sept. 2020.
“The GRU, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and Russia’s Wagner Group: Malign Russian Actors and Possible U.S. Responses,” testimony before the Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment, United States House of Representatives, Hearing on Exposing and Demanding Accountability for Kremlin Crimes Abroad, July 7, 2020, https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA14/20200707/110854/HHRG-116-FA14-W… nK-20200707.pdf
"Russia's Back in Africa: Is the Cold War Returning?" The Washington Quarterly 42, no. 4 (Dec. 2019): 155-70, https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.gwu.edu/dist/1/2181/files/2019/12/M…;
"Russ-Afrique? Russia, France, and the Central African Republic," PONARS-Eurasia Policy Memo 608, Aug. 2019, http://www.ponarseurasia.org/sites/default/files/policy-memos-pdf/Pepm6… 19..pdf
"Russia’s Use of Semi-State Security Forces: The Case of the Wagner Group," Post-Soviet Affairs, published online March 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2019.1591142.
"Into Africa: Prigozhin, Wagner, and the Russian Military," PONARS-Eurasia Policy Memo 561, Jan. 2019, http://www.ponarseurasia.org/memo/africa-prigozhin-wagner-and-russian-m…;
“The Intelligence Agencies and Putin: Undermining Russia’s Security?” in The Routledge Handbook of Russian Security, ed. Roger Kanet (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2019), pp. 192-202.
With Olga Oliker, "Brothers in Arms? Why Trump Should Push Putin to Revive Arms Control," ForeignAffairs.com, July 13, 2018, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/2018-07-13/b…;
"Semi-state Security Actors and Russian Aggression," Lawfare blog, July 8, 2018, https://www.lawfareblog.com/semi-state-security-actors-and-russian-aggression
"The Puzzle of Russian Behavior in Deir-al-zour," War on the Rocks blog, July 5, 2018, https://warontherocks.com/2018/07/the-puzzle-of-russian-behavior-in-dei…;
"Reckless Ambition: Moscow's Policy toward the United States, 2016/17," International Politics 56 (2019): 743–761 (published online May 2, 2018).
“Explaining Russia’s Schizophrenic Policy toward the United States,” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo 501, Jan. 2018.
"Reconsidering NATO Expansion: A Counterfactual Analysis of Russia and the West in the 1990s," European Journal of International Security 3, no. 2 (June 2018), doi:10.1017/eis.2017.16 . Published online first
"Digital Détente: The Case for Cyber Peace with Russia," The New Republic, Jan./Feb. 2018 (published online Nov. 28, 2017), https://newrepublic.com/article/145911/digital-detente-cyber-peace-russ…;
"President Trump, Keep in Mind that Russia and the West Think about Negotiations Very, Very Differently," Washington Post Monkey Cage blog, July 25, 2017.
"The ‘KGB State’ and Russian Political and Foreign Policy Culture," Journal of Slavic Military Studies 30, no. 2 (April 2017): 131-51.
Reducing Tensions between NATO and Russia, Council Special Report 79 (Council on Foreign Relations Center for Preventive Action), March 2017.
Essay in SSF Policy Roundtable 1-7: Russia and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, March 27, 2017.
"Trump and Putin, through a Glass Darkly," Asia Policy 23 (Jan. 2017): 36-42.
"The Security Costs and Benefits of Non-State Militias: The Example of Eastern Ukraine PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo 391, September 2015.
“Putin’s Choices: Explaining Russian Foreign Policy and Intervention in Ukraine,” The Washington Quarterly 38, no. 2 (Summer 2015): 189-204.
“Informal Political Networks and Putin’s Foreign Policy: The Examples of Iran and Syria,” Problems of Post-Communism 62, no. 2 (April 2015): 71-87.
"A New Explanation for Russian Foreign Policy: The Power of Informal Patronage Networks," PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo 274, September 2013.
Warlords: Strong-Arm Brokers in Weak States. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012. (Chapter 5 is on Chechnya and Ramzan Kadryov)
Weapons, Culture, and Self-Interest: Soviet Defense Managers in the New Russia. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Engaging the Enemy: Organization Theory and Soviet Military Innovation, 1955-1991. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.