Kumaon is a mountainous division of a newly independent Indian state, Uttarakhand. The rural region with dramatic topography and the hill people who live there are often represented as ‘backwards’ by scholars, historians, and politicians alike. Although once subjected to an extractive history of British colonial and Indian national imperatives, the hills region now thrives

Jackson School Journal (JSJ): Could you start with a brief description of the focus of your research? Weber: My research explores the tricky relationship between national sovereignty and international cooperation through a history of U.S. military basing in Latin America during World War II. When U.S. strategists first tried to build military bases in Latin

Jackson School Journal (JSJ): Let’s start by learning a little more about you. Could you tell us about your academic career? Bessner: In college I went to Columbia and I interned at the Council on Foreign Relations my senior year, which got me oriented towards US foreign policy. I majored in modern European history and