Young Professionals: "Iranian Drones Evolved: How Western Sanctions Created a Drone Superpower"

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Dr. Benjamin Radd is an Affiliate with the MIT Security Studies Program Wargaming Lab, a Senior Fellow at UCLA’s Burkle Center for International Relations, a lecturer at UCLA Law and USC Gould School of Law, and a contributor to CBS News Los Angeles. A political scientist, legal scholar, and crisis-simulation designer, he writes and speaks on foreign policy, constitutionalism, geopolitical crises, domestic political conflict, and decision-making under pressure. His analysis has appeared in CNN, BBC, Deutsche Welle, CNBC, CBS, NBC, FOX, NPR, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the founder of Fascination Lab, where he designs immersive simulations and strategic learning tools used in academic, government, and political consulting settings.

Mieczysław (Mietek) Boduszyński teaches U.S. foreign policy at Pomona College, as well as courses on the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, research design, and democracy and autocracy. In 2025, his contributions as a teacher were recognized with a Wig Distinguished Professor Award, the highest honor bestowed on Pomona faculty. He organizes and leads Pomona’s first-ever short-term summer traveling seminar "Diplomacy and Human Rights in the Mediterranean," an immersive learning experience during which students spent one week in Brussels and two weeks in Morocco exploring diplomatic policy and practice around human rights issues. In 2026, in collaboration with The States Forum, he conceived and implemented a study tour for prominent American leaders on democratic resilience in Poland.

He is an expert on U.S. foreign policy, democratic transitions and democracy promotion, post-conflict stabilization, transitional justice, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and the Middle East and North Africa. He has also conducted research in and written about Japan and South Korea.

Prior to joining Pomona, Boduszyński was a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State with postings in Albania, Kosovo, Japan, Egypt, Libya and Iraq. During the 2022-2023 academic year, he took a public service leave and worked at the Pentagon for the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy as a policy advisor on issues related to civilian protection as well as atrocities, war crimes and accountability in Ukraine.

From 2019-2020, Boduszyński served as a volunteer advisor on the Biden/Harris campaign foreign policy team. He was a 2020-2021 American Political Science Association Congressional and Steiger Fellow serving as a foreign policy advisor in the office of Representative Ted W. Lieu (CA-33). In 2021, Boduszyński was selected as a Truman National Security Fellow, and in 2024 he joined the Leadership Circle of Foreign Policy for America. He is also a member of the Pacific Council.

A frequent op-ed contributor to publications such as the Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Lawfare, and Just Security, Boduszyński's first book is about democratization in the Balkans. His second book, US Democracy Promotion in the Arab World: Beyond Interests vs. Ideals, analyzes U.S. policy responses to the Arab Spring. He is also the co-author of a textbook titled Research Methods in Politics and International Relations, the second edition of which was published in 2025.

Boduszyński was a 2016-2018 Center for Public Diplomacy Research Fellow at the University of Southern California, a 2017-2018 resident fellow at IAU College in Aix-en-Provence, France, and a visiting professor at Sciences Po-Paris School of International Affairs (Spring 2018). He has also been a visiting scholar at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (Summer 2017) and the University of Gothenburg-V-Dem Institute. He has taught at the American University of Cairo, Temple University—Japan Campus, European University in Tirana (Albania), the University of San Diego and KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. In 2026, he is a visiting professor at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.

In addition to English, Boduszyński speaks Arabic, Japanese, Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian, Albanian, French, Polish and basic Korean.

Twelve years in the California Army National Guard. Mark enlisted as a 68W Combat Medic and served across the 1-160th Infantry, 1-144th Field Artillery, and 1-185th Infantry battalions before commissioning as a Field Artillery officer with Air Defense Artillery experience. He served as the Charlie Battery Fire Direction Officer with the 1-144th Field Artillery.

He was one of the first officers in the California Army National Guard to experience drone warfare firsthand, with deployments to Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait. Within his first 10 days in country, his actions during a hostile drone attack helped save 100+ Syrian and American personnel, earning him the Combat Action Badge. He was later awarded the Army Commendation Medal with "C" Device (initially recommended for the Bronze Star) for developing 40+ intelligence briefs on drone threats for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

Mark is a published author and the writer behind Eyes in the Skies, a drone and national security publication with 1,600+ subscribers followed by senior defense leaders including Gen. (Ret.) David Petraeus. He serves on the board of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council Young Professionals, holds an M.A. in Government from Johns Hopkins University (published thesis) and a B.S. in Business Administration from California State University, Los Angeles. Today he serves as an FAA Part 107 remote pilot, a CUAS subject matter expert and consultant, and the Founder & CEO of Cobalt — the defense startup behind this academy.