Monti Datta

Public Policy and Nuclear Threats IGERT
University of California, San Diego


Monti Narayan Datta is currently a third-year graduate student in the Department of Political Science, UC Davis. His academic interests include: the sources of anti-Americanism, Korean unification, human rights, and the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Datta's interest in nuclear weapons nonproliferation policy grew after a viewing of the 1983 film Testament-a harrowing portrayal of a mother's life in the outskirts of San Francisco after a nuclear attack. The film concentrates not on the devastation of the atomic blast itself, but rather on the mother's yearlong ordeal to tend to her loved ones amid a slow but steady stream of radiation poison from the nuclear fallout. A pacifist, Datta is deeply concerned about the impact of U.S. foreign policy on the international community, and how, after 9/11, non-state actors within the international system might be in closer in both desire and proximity to using weapons of mass destruction on U.S. soil.

Datta earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from UC Berkeley in 1994, after which he spent three years working as an English teacher in Japan and South Korea. During this time, he made several interesting treks throughout India and Thailand. In 2002 he completed a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University.

In his spare time, Datta likes to practice tai chi and Vipassana meditation, go to the movies, play with his Xbox, and spend time with his girlfriend Veronica and his cat Masala.

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