Shane Mason is a Research Associate in Stimson’s South Asia program. Before Stimson, Shane was a Scoville Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he worked in the Nuclear Policy Program. He graduated magna cum laude from Pepperdine University, where he majored in Political Science, played on the men’s golf team, and was Pepperdine’s Male Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2009 and 2010. In December 2013, Shane earned his M.A. in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. He has interned in the Department of External Relations at the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in Vienna, Austria, and studied Urdu in Lucknow, India, in conjunction with a State Department Critical Language Scholarship. He has co-authored articles in Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs.
Shane Mason
Former Research Associate
Research & Writing
Shane Mason’s Op-ed in Defense News on India’s Budget
The most eye-catching aspects of the recently released Indian defense budget are top-line growth and diminished spending for procurement. Top-line defense spending grew by 12 percent in fiscal year 2017 compared to the previous budget, making India one…
Military Budgets in India and Pakistan: Trajectories, Priorities, and Risks
The strategic competition between India and Pakistan is evolving, with India outpacing Pakistan in conventional capabilities while Pakistan seeks to compete with nuclear capabilities. India’s economy is eight times larger than Pakistan’s, and may be 15…
India Needs to Understand the Causes of its NSG Embarrassment
Whatever narrative India internalises will have interesting implications for Indian foreign policy – and by extension the Asian security order – for years to come. India’s bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) – a 48-country cartel that control…
The Lure and Pitfalls of MIRVs: From the First to the Second Nuclear Age
In the second nuclear age, no less than the first, there are no realistic prospects for banning multiple-warhead missiles. China has started to deploy such missiles, and India and Pakistan are likely to cross this threshold as well. The motiv…
Deterrence Instability & Nuclear Weapons in South Asia
Deterrence between India and Pakistan is becoming less stable with the passage of time and an increase in nuclear weapon capabilities. India and Pakistan have not addressed basic issues in dispute, nor have they agreed to set them aside. Direct trade a…