Neil Narang

Neil Narang is a national security scholar and university executive working at the intersection of higher education, federal research, and the national laboratories. He serves as Interim Associate Vice President for UC National Laboratories at the University of California Office of the President, Co-Director of the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), and Associate Professor of Political Science at UC Santa Barbara.

At UCOP, Narang helps guide the University’s stewardship and strategic engagement with Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos national laboratories, working across university leadership, laboratory management, federal partners, and the UC campuses to advance institutional strategy and research partnerships. At IGCC, he leads programs on nuclear security, emerging technologies and strategic stability, great-power competition, and alliances and extended deterrence. He directs IGCC’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in Technology and International Security and the Public Policy and Nuclear Threats program, which has prepared more than 550 leaders across government, academia, the national laboratories, and industry.

Previously, Narang served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy through a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship. He is an advisor to the Director’s Office at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

His scholarship examines nuclear security, emerging technologies, alliances, and crisis decision-making. His research has appeared in the Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Journal of Peace Research. Narang received his Ph.D. from UC San Diego and his B.A. in molecular and cell biology and political science from UC Berkeley.