Sarah Kreps

Sarah E. Kreps (born May 10, 1976) is an American political scientist, author, and former United States Air Force officer whose research focuses on the relationship between emerging technology, international politics, and national security. She is the John L. Wetherill Professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University, an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School, and director of the Tech Policy Institute in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.

Kreps is also a nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, a senior fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Military and professional career

Kreps served as an active-duty officer in the United States Air Force from 1999 to 2003. She worked as an acquisition and procurement officer on advanced surveillance technology and as a foreign area officer specializing in European and Sub-Saharan African affairs. The institute conducts research on the political and public-policy consequences of emerging technologies, including their effects on national security, democracy, public health, and financial systems.

Kreps became a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in 2020. Her previous fellowships and academic affiliations have included the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Hoover Institution, and the Modern War Institute at the United States Military Academy.

She subsequently studied the military, legal, ethical, and political implications of remotely piloted aircraft. In Drone Warfare, written with philosopher John Kaag, Kreps examined the development of military drone programs, their relationship to public accountability, and proposals for the international regulation of drone warfare. The book was named a 2015 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Kreps expanded this work in Drones: What Everyone Needs to Know, which surveys the history, technology, strategic uses, legal status, and political consequences of drones.

War finance and democratic accountability

In Taxing Wars: The American Way of War Finance and the Decline of Democracy, Kreps examined changes in the way the United States finances military conflicts. She argued that the declining use of wartime taxation and greater reliance on borrowing have weakened the connection between military action and the financial sacrifices experienced by the public, thereby reducing incentives for public scrutiny of war.

Kreps and political scientist Douglas L. Kriner later edited Checking the Costs of War: Sources of Accountability in Post-9/11 US Foreign Policy. The volume examines how Congress, public opinion, political parties, government agencies, and other domestic institutions constrain—or fail to constrain—presidential uses of military power.

Technology and politics

Kreps's later research has focused increasingly on emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, social media, cybersecurity, digital currencies, and semiconductor supply chains.

Kreps has conducted experimental research on public trust in artificial intelligence, AI-generated political communication, government responsiveness, online misinformation, automated decision systems, and public attitudes toward surveillance following cyberattacks.

She has also participated in interdisciplinary research concerning public-health communication and vaccine acceptance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2024, Kreps became a co-principal investigator on a United States Department of Defense-supported project studying threats to semiconductor supply chains. She has also participated in research concerning the relationship between digital currencies and financial freedom.

Awards and honors

2015 – Choice Outstanding Academic Title for Drone Warfare, shared with John Kaag. 2024 – Veterans Colleague Network Group Continuation of Service Award, Cornell University, recognizing her work supporting student veterans.

Selected bibliography

Books

Selected articles