About me

I am a Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville, where I have taught since 1991. From 1994-2011, I directed 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 then served as full-time chair from January 1, 2012 through December 2017. I am on sabbatical during the spring terms of 2018 and 2019. If fall 2018, I am Fulbright Canada Research Chair at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.

For many years, I have served as a member of the Provost's Sustainability Council and the Administration, Finance and Outreach (AFO) Committee of that Council. In fall 2010, the Provost named me to the University-Wide Ad Hoc Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). In fall 2012, I became the chair of the AFO committee, which was renamed the Planning and Administration Committee in August 2015. I resigned from that position in September 2017. We have accomplished a good deal at Louisville and the University has committed to carbon neutrality by 2050. UofL's commitment to SRI is demonstrated primarily by its decision to hire a third-party firm to vote its proxies using various social criteria.

Wofford College President 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 (or here or 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 Political Economy and Security (1988-89). I also taught as a visiting faculty member at Northwestern for two years before arriving at Louisville. Years later, I spent a sabbatical at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Security (2005).

This personal blog began in September 2003. In June 2005, I began posting regularly at the international relations group blog, Duck of Minerva, though my output has slowed (or stopped) in recent years. From August 2009 until late 2012, I wrote occasional blog posts on Climate Politics: IR and the Environment for e-International Relations (e-IR).

I love 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. My first contribution to a SABR publication appeared in December 2017.  I root  for the Kansas City Royals (World Series Champions in 2015!) 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 (or "B") season of 2016. Update: Won again in the first half of 2018 ("A" season). My team also made the playoffs in the second half of 2014 and first half of 2015 -- and lost in the 2017 B World Series.

I also enjoy watching University of Kansas basketball, reading "hard boiled" detective fiction, listening to Americana music, viewing movies, and playing Texas Hold'em poker. I occasionally blog about these interests. More likely, you'll find me "micro-blogging" on one of my two Twitter accounts (professional and personal).

My wife reads this blog and often sends me articles or tidbits for topical consideration. We live with two mutts of unknown origin that were born in July 2005. Our oldest daughter attends graduate school and her sister is working in a regional theater company in Hartford, CT.

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