Have you ever noticed how professors post a copy of their vita online and, after a few years, it’s woefully out of date? Well, I have. I can’t promise that the same thing won’t happen here. So, if you find that my CV is insufficiently current, please don’t hesitate to contact me for an up-to-date copy.
You can also view my Google Scholar Profile.
Current Research Projects
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Differences among Countries
How do we form impressions of other countries, and of our own? This problem of “image” or “identity” is widely acknowledged to be much more important than once thought. I am developing a general model of state identities to better account for the role perception plays in foreign policy.
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Seeing Japan
I’m currently finishing up a book about the way Japan is seen by its neighbors in East Asia. Japan is widely admired, but not everywhere. And even in China and Korea, perceptions of Japan are more complex than some imagine. I advance a theory of emotion in foreign policy to better account for Japan’s international image.
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Emotion in Politics and Policy
I’m working on several papers mapping the emotional terrain of foreign policy and employing techniques of network analysis to better understand what types of emotion are most evident in international diplomacy and to developed improved models of emotion in foreign policy.
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African Policy Scripts
Inspired by sociological theories of symbolic interaction, John Clark, Moses Khisa and I are investigating the way African leaders are socialized by formative experiences early in their careers. We compare the cases of Uganda under Museveni and Ethiopia under Meles.
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Grand Strategy and Role Taking
With one of the pioneers of role theory in foreign policy analysis, Steve Walker, I am investigating the timing of shifts in US grand strategy. We hypothesize that congruence across several levels—International role demands, a permissive domestic political coalition, and activist leadership—makes such transitions more likely.
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Student Engagement
Together with colleagues in the Communication Department at UMass Boston, I am studying the way engaging students through social media affects attitudes toward their university and their undergraduate major.
General Research Areas
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Psychology and Foreign Policy
Several ongoing research projects focus on aspects of political psychology in foreign policy. These include research on the way national leaders make foreign policy decisions, on the psychology of national identity, and most recently on the role of emotion in shaping foreign policy.
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East Asian Security
I have lived and conducted research in Japan for several years. I am particularly interested in the role of national identity, emotion, and historical memory in shaping conflicts among East Asia’s major powers, and in the evolving power dynamics of the region.
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Constructivism
In general, much of my research could be described as constructivist in its general sensibilities. By this, I mean that I regard the object of my study—international relations—as a socially manipulated construct that grows out of our shared experiences rather than as an objective fact that is correctly interpreted in only one way.
Published Research
Books
Psychology and Constructivism in International Relations: An Ideational Alliance, co-edited with Vaughn P. Shannon (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011); chapters on "Completing the Ideational Triangle: Identity, Choice, and Obligation in International Relations" (pp. 30-53) and "Conclusion: Context and Contributions of the Ideational Alliance" (pp. 215-238).
Cultures of Order: Leadership, Language and Social Reconstruction in Germany and Japan, co-authored with Katja Weber (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2007).
Groupthink or Deadlock: When Do Leaders Learn from Their Advisors? (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2002).
International Relations in a Constructed World, co-edited with Vendulka Kubálková and Nicholas G. Onuf (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1998); chapters on "Constructing Constructivism" (with Kubálková and Onuf, pp. 3-21), and "Agent versus Structure in the Construction of National Identity" (pp. 101-122). In Chinese translation: trans. Feng Xiao (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2005).
Articles and Book Chapters
“Mapping the Emotional Terrain of Foreign Policy,” with Stephen E. McAvene, International Politics (2024, online publication).
“Elite Political Identities and African Foreign Policies: Some Theoretical Considerations,” with John F. Clark, in John F. Clark, ed., Elite Political Identities and African Foreign Policies (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2024).
“Foreign Policy Analysis and Constructivism,” with J. Samuel Barkin, in Juliet Kaarbo and Cameron G. Thies, eds., Oxford Handbook of Foreign Policy Analysis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024).
“Making Sense of Our World: Competence, Reason, and the Emergence of Ethical Systems,” in Harry Gould, ed., The Art of World Making (New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 127-142.
“Dimensions of Identity Construction and the Measurement of Differences among Countries,” in J. Samuel Barkin and Laura Sjoberg, eds., Interpretive Quantification: Methodological Explorations for Critical and Constructivist IR (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2017), pp. 149-174.
“(Babylonian) Lions, (Asian) Tigers, and (Russian) Bears: A Statistical Test of Three Rivalrous Paths to Conflict,” with Cameron Thies, Journal of International Relations and Development 16 (2013), pp. 406-433; advance online publication, November 23, 2012; doi:10.1057/jird.2012.26.
“Foreign Policy and the Social Construction of State Identity,” in Robert A. Denemark, ed., The International Studies Encyclopedia (Oxford: Blackwell, 2010), pp. 2479-2498.
“Evaluating the Obama Presidency: An Early Assessment,” Journal of Contemporary Society and Culture (현대사회와 문화) 29 (2009), pp. 5-31 (in Korean translation), and pp. 149-176 (in English).
“Alexithymia and Psychopathy: Comparison and Application of California Q-set Prototypes,” with Mark G. Haviland and Janet L. Sonne, Journal of Personality Assessment 82, 3 (2004), pp. 306-316.
“Language, Rules, and Order: The Westpolitik Debate of Adenauer and Schumacher,” with Katja Weber, in François Debrix, ed., Language, Agency, and Politics in a Constructed World (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 2003), pp. 196-219.
“Toward A Constructivist Theory of Foreign Policy,” in Vendulka Kubálková and Ralph Pettman, eds., Foreign Policy in a Constructed World (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 2001), pp. 266-287.
“Political Science is What We Make of It,” Civilization 21 (文明21, or Bunmei 21) 7 (September 2001), pp. 77-98.
“Leadership and Learning in Political Groups: The Management of Advice in the Iran-Contra Affair,” Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration 14, 2 (April 2001), pp. 201-232.
“The Peril and Promise of Constructivist Theory,” Ritsumeikan Journal of International Studies (立命館国際研究, or Ritsumeikan Kokusai Kenkyu) 13, 3 (March 2001), pp. 157-170.
“The Role of Culture and Identity in National Economic Crises,” Ritsumeikan Journal of International and Regional Studies (立命館国際地域研究, or Ritsumeikan Kokusai Chiiki Kenkyu) 16 (March 2000), pp. 53-70.
“Agency and Collective Identity in International Politics,” Ritsumeikan Journal of International and Regional Studies (立命館国際地域研究, or Ritsumeikan Kokusai Chiiki Kenkyu) 14 (March 1999), pp. 111-133.
“National Identity: Inside and Out,” Security Studies 8, 2 (Winter 1998/99), pp. 1-34; also appears as a chapter in Glenn Chafetz, Michael Spirtas, and Benjamin Frankel, eds., The Origins of National Interests (London: Frank Cass, 1999), pp. 1-34.
“Who Takes Risks? Daring and Caution in Foreign Policy Decision Making,” with Margaret G. Hermann, Journal of Conflict Resolution 41, 5 (October 1997), pp. 611-637.
“Where Does the Buck Stop? Assessing the Impact of Presidential Personality,” Political Psychology 17 (1996), pp. 421-452.
“Norms, Identity, and Their Limits: A Theoretical Reprise,” with Jeff Legro, in Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp. 451-497.
Book Reviews
“Old Glory and the Modern State: Richard Ned Lebow’s A Cultural Theory of International Relations,” Politik 12, 4 (2009), pp. 58-62. Review of Richard Ned Lebow, A Cultural Theory of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
“Central Tendencies,” International Studies Review 8, 2 (June 2006), p. 294-296. Review of David Mitchell, Making Foreign Policy: Presidential Management of the Decision-Making Process (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005).
Untitled review of William W. Newmann, Managing National Security Policy: The President and the Process (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003); in Presidential Studies Quarterly 34, 2 (June 2004), pp. 461-463.
“History and Theory in the New Sociologies of International Relations,” International Studies Review 5, 1 (March 2003), pp. 77-79. Review of Stephen Hobden and John M. Hobson, eds., Historical Sociology of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
“The Sociology of Large-Scale Organizations,” Mershon International Studies Review 41 (1997), pp. 287-290. Review of James Hawdon, Emerging Organizational Forms: The Proliferation of Regional Intergovernmental Organizations in the Modern World-System (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996).
Reports, Editorials, and Other Writing
“Where Is an Election Year Sully?” Op/Ed, “As You Were Saying…” Feature, Boston Herald, September 17, 2016; http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/op_ed/2016/09/ as_you_were_sayingwhere_is_an_election_year_sully.
“Dream On,” In His Own Words Feature, Women in Higher Education 21, 9 (October 2012), p. 8.
“Why We Love the Olympics,” Op/Ed, Campus Voices, Florida International University News Website, July 23, 2012.
“Much to a Name in U.S. Politics,” Op/Ed, Japan Times, October 9, 2008, p. 15.
“Culture, National Images, and the Asian Economic Crisis,” Gurobarizeshon to Ajia Bunmei: Ajia Keizai Kiki no Imi Suru Mono (Globalization and Asian Civilizations: Implications of the Asian Economic Crisis), Okinawa International Forum Report (Japan Foundation, 1999), pp. 49-60.