Alexandra Sukalo

Alexandra Sukalo is an Assistant Professor of National Security Affairs. She is a historian of Russia and Eastern Europe. Her research and teaching focus on Russian and Soviet intelligence and security services, the Russian and Soviet military-industrial complex, as well as the Russian and Soviet nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Sukalo is completing a book manuscript on the Soviet Union’s domestic intelligence and security services under Stalin. Her dissertation, upon which her book is based, won the University of Texas at Austin’s Bobby R. Inman Award for excellence in student scholarship on intelligence. Her second book project, entitled The Soviet Nuclear Empire, examines the development and workings of the Soviet nuclear industry. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post, War on the Rocks, and the journal of Intelligence and National Security.

Prior to joining the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Sukalo was an Assistant Professor of Modern Russian History and Security Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. She earned her PhD and MA in history from Stanford University. She also received an MA in European and Russian Studies from Yale University, and she holds a BA in political science from Barnard College. She completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin.  

Prior to her academic appointments, Sukalo also worked as a Eurasian analyst for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.