About me

I am a Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville, where I have taught since 1991. From 1994-2011, I chaired the committee overseeing the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, which has long been the largest cash prize administered by political scientists.

I served as Acting Department Chair from July 2007 to June 2008 and became full-time chair on January 1, 2012. Over the past few years, I have been a member of the Provost's Sustainability Council and the Administration, Finance and Outreach Committee of that Council. In fall 2010, the Provost appointed me to the University-Wide Committee on Socially Responsible Investing.

Kenyon College Provost Nayef H. Samhat and I wrote Democratizing Global Politics; Discourse Norms, International Regimes, and Political Community, which was published by SUNY Press in March 2004. A fairly complete list of my other academic publications -- mostly about international security topics, global environmental politics, and/or political communication -- can be found here.

Decades ago, I was a Fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (1987-88) and at Chicago's Program on International Politics, Economics and Security (1988-89). I also taught as a visiting faculty member at Northwestern for two years before arriving at Louisville. I spent a recent sabbatical at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Security (2005).

This personal blog began in September 2003. Since June 2005, I have also posted regularly at the international relations group blog, Duck of Minerva. In August 2009, I began writing occasional blog posts on Climate Politics: IR and the Environment for e-International Relations (e-IR).

I am a fanatic about baseball and have been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) since 1997. Primarily, I am a consumer, not a producer, of baseball research. I root (without much hope or purpose) for the Kansas City Royals and compete in a couple of fantasy baseball leagues. One is the Hardy House League, which some friends invited me to join in 1989 while I was living in Chicago. After a long drought, my team won the 2010 championship. The second is the 24 team Original Bitnet Fantasy League Baseball," which I joined in 1991 and last won in the second half season of 2008.

I also enjoy watching University of Kansas basketball, reading classic "hard boiled" detective fiction, listening to Americana music, viewing movies and playing poker. I occasionally blog about these interests.

My wife reads this blog and often sends me articles or tidbits for topical consideration. We live with our youngest teenage daughter and two mutts of unknown origin that were born in July 2005. Our oldest daughter will be a college sophomore in 2012-2013.


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