In the latest Alumni Confidential, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) dissertation fellow (1996-97) Steven Lobell, a professor of political science at the University of Utah and expert in U.S. grand strategy, international security, and great power competition talks about what the early years of academic life are (really) like, and why being an IGCC fellow helped him get a head start. He also shares emerging findings from his new Minerva-funded research on why some near crises escalate into full-blown conflict—and why others don’t—and how escalation can be avoided.

In January, Nigerian-based pirates seized the MV Mozart, a large Liberian-flagged container ship heading to Cape Town, South Africa, from Lagos, Nigeria, as the ship sailed close to Sao Tome’s maritime border. Fifteen abducted officers and crew members were released in February after the shipping company paid a ransom, but one sailor died in the assault.