Paola Solimena is a Postdoctoral Scholar Scholar in the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. Her research focuses on the perceptual processes that underpin interstate communication, as well as the theoretical and historical foundations of psychological approaches to International Relations. Her current work draws on psychology to understand how decision makers and members of the public infer a state‘s security goals from its foreign policy choices. Her research combines experimental and qualitative-historical methods. Before joining the Saltzman Institute, she completed her Ph.D.  in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where her work was supported by University College and the UK Social and Economic Research Council. She also holds an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford, and a BA in International Politics and History from Jacobs University Bremen, Germany.