Sponsored by the Alumni Association of Princeton University 

Moderator:

Jacob N. Shapiro
Vice Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; John Foster Dulles Professor in International Affairs

Panelists:     

Jim Timbie ’66
Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Laurel E. Miller ’86
President and CEO, The Asia Foundation

Asha Rangappa ’96
Senior Lecturer, Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs

Cara Abercrombie *03
Senior Adviser, The Cohen Group

MODERATOR

Jacob N. Shapiro
Jacob N. Shapiro co-founded the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project and leads Princeton’s Accelerator initiative to advance research on the information environment. Shapiro has published extensively on conflict, economic development, security and technology, including “The Terrorist’s Dilemma” (2013) and “Small Wars, Big Data” (2018). His fieldwork spans Afghanistan, Colombia, India and Pakistan. A recipient of the 2016 Karl Deutsch Award from the International Studies Association, he has advised government agencies, NGOs and tech companies on security policy and foreign influence. Shapiro holds a Ph.D. in political science and an M.A. in economics from Stanford University, and a B.A. from the University of Michigan. He is also a U.S. Navy veteran and recently served in the U.S. government.

PANELISTS

Jim Timbie ’66
As a scientist and senior adviser at the State Department from 1971 to 2016, Jim Timbie played a central role in negotiating the nuclear arms reductions agreements with the Soviet Union and Russia, and the nuclear agreement with Iran. In 2016, he retired from the State Department and joined the Hoover Institution to work with former Secretary of State George Shultz ’42, and he now co-manages the Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) Initiative that continues to explore issues that mattered to Shultz. Timbie is also chair of the National Academy of Sciences’ Track II dialogue with the Russian Academy. He has a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University.

Laurel E. Miller ’86
Laurel Miller is president is CEO of The Asia Foundation, an international nonprofit that helps solve development and public policy challenges. She is also a congressionally appointed member of the bipartisan Afghanistan War Commission. Previously, she directed the International Crisis Group’s Asia program and was a senior foreign policy expert at the RAND Corporation. Miller served in the U.S. State Department as acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan; senior adviser to the assistant secretary for European Affairs; and deputy ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues. She served as director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council. Miller practiced law with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., and Brussels after serving as a law clerk on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She was a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow. Laurel is a graduate of Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and the University of Chicago Law School.

Asha Rangappa ’96
Asha Rangappa is a senior lecturer at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs and a former associate dean at Yale Law School. Prior to Yale, Rangappa served as a special agent in the New York division of the FBI, specializing in counterintelligence investigations. She is a frequent legal commentator for CNN, MS NOW and other networks and is the author of a bestselling Substack, The Freedom Academy. Her current book project, “UNCOMPROMISED: Activating Your Moral Compass in an Age of Complicity,” will be published by Bloomsbury in 2028. Rangappa graduated from what is now the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and received a Fulbright scholarship to Bogotá, Colombia. She earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She is an editor for Just Security, a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and a Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project.

Cara Abercrombie *03
Cara Abercrombie is a national security expert and senior adviser at a Washington, D.C.-based strategic advisory firm. Previously, she held numerous senior positions in the Pentagon and White House during a two-decade civil service career. During the Biden administration, she served as acting deputy under secretary of defense for policy, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as assistant secretary of defense for acquisition. From 2021 to 2023, she served as deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for defense policy and arms control at the White House National Security Council. Throughout her time in government, Abercrombie worked to advance U.S. relations with partners across the Indo-Pacific, strengthening alliances and initiating groundbreaking defense cooperation with India. Abercrombie is a passionate advocate for epilepsy awareness and research. She is a member of CURE Epilepsy’s research committee and co-chair of the KPTN Alliance.