Vera Mironova is a Russian-American academic, scholar, award-winning writer, producer, and policy consultant specializing in armed conflict.
Vera is an Associate Fellow at Davis Center at Harvard University and Middle East Institute. She is an author of two award-winning books on security and counter-terrorism focusing on former Soviet Union. Her first book “From Freedom Fighters to Jihadists: Human Resources of Non-State Armed Groups” was published in 2019 (OUP), and her second one, “Criminals, Nazis, and Islamists: Competition for Power in Former Soviet Union Prisons”, was published in 2023 (OUP). She is currently finishing her third book “Displaced War: History of Conflict in North Caucasus” (OUP).
Most of Vera’s work is in the field. To answer her research questions she conducts in-depth fieldwork in conflict zones and with hard-to-access populations. She interviewed hundreds of ISIS members, members of other terrorist groups, and criminals all over the world.
In 2016-2017 she was embedded with the Iraqi Special Operation Force for the battle of Mosul, in 2022-2023 she was embedded with Ukraine Security Services, and in 2023 she worked on the US/Mexico border. She also worked in Syria, Yemen, Nagorno-Karabakh, Sudan, Ukraine, D.R. Congo, and other countries. Her unique fieldwork was profiled in the article in New Scientist among other magazines.
She was an investigator with UNITAD in Baghdad, special advisor of Red Cross for working with armed groups in the Middle East, and consults countries on repatriation and prosecution of returned ISIS members.
Vera’s scholarship has been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, BBC, The Economist, and Sunday Times. She has collaborated with investigative journalists on in-depth articles published by The New York Times, BBC, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and Guardian.
Vera Mironova is a graduate of Moscow State University, holding Master of Science degrees in Applied Mathematics (valedictorian) and Social and Economic Geography. She received her doctorate in political science from the University of Maryland and was a pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, as well as at Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiations. She also held a visiting professor position at University of Oxford.
Dr. Vera Mironova’s full Resume/CV
