PPE Research Fellow Focus: Clara Suong

Clara Suong, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Virginia Tech, was a PPE Research Fellow with the David H. Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics during the academic year of 2024-2025. The fellowship supported Dr. Suong’s research on government secrecy and bureaucracy in foreign policy.

Dr. Suong used the fellowship to understand the political causes and consequences of government secrecy and bureaucratic structures in foreign policy, investigating why and how secrecy wielded by democratic governments can be used to rally the domestic public and bureaucrats around foreign policy on the use of force in international politics. The funding helped Dr. Suong extend her current findings by allowing her to travel to conferences and get feedback on her manuscripts for the project.

As Dr. Suong states: “The fellowship greatly contributed to my research productivity. In particular, a paper based on these research activities was presented at two academic conferences in Fall 2024 and Spring 2025: the 120th Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the American Political Science Association in Philadelphia and the 66th Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association in Chicago.”

Based on the feedback from these conferences, Dr. Suong secured a revise and resubmit request for a manuscript from a top peer-reviewed journal in political science. The revised version is currently under review with the journal. Dr. Suong also drafted a follow-up manuscript on the topic that extends the manuscript’s findings.

“Overall, the PPE fellowship has provided me with an invaluable opportunity to expand my research agenda and develop my understanding of the politics surrounding government secrecy. I am quite grateful for the funding support that it has provided.”

To learn more about the Center’s research fellowship, please visit this link.

(Images by Holly Belcher and Clara Suong for Virginia Tech)