Dr. Barry R. Posen is Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT, Director of the MIT Security Studies Program, and serves on the Executive Committee of Seminar XXI. He has held numerous fellowship positions during his 40 year career, and specializes in security studies, international relations, international security, military strategy, restraint, nuclear studies and military doctrine.
Dr. Barry R. Posen is Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT, Director of the MIT Security Studies Program, and serves on the Executive Committee of Seminar XXI. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2016 he was appointed Henry A. Kissinger Chair (visiting) in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress, John W. Kluge Center. He has been a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow; Rockefeller Foundation International Affairs Fellow; Guest Scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow, Smithsonian Institution; Transatlantic Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States; and a Visiting Fellow at the John Sloan Dickey Center at Dartmouth College.
He is the 2017 recipient of the International Security Studies Section (ISSS), International Studies Association, Distinguished Scholar Award.
He specializes in security studies, international relations, international security, military strategy, restraint, nuclear studies and military doctrine.
His most recent book, Restraint: A New Foundation for U.S. Grand Strategy, was released in May 2014. He has written two earlier books, Inadvertent Escalation: Conventional War and Nuclear Risks and The Sources of Military Doctrine. The latter won The American Political Science Association’s Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award, and Ohio State University’s Edward J. Furniss Jr. Book Award. He is also the author of numerous articles, including ‘Civil Wars and the Structure of World Power’ in Daedalus, ‘Pull Back: The Case for a Less Activist Foreign Policy’ in Foreign Affairs, and ‘Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of U.S. Hegemony’ in International Security.
He received his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 1981.
Articles
A New Transatlantic Division of Labor Could Save Billions Every Year!
"The US defense effort consumes roughly three-quarters of a trillion dollars per year and makes up a quarter of all Federal spending and half of...
3Q: Barry Posen on the NATO Summit and state of the alliance
In this interview, NSWG member Barry Posen answers the questions like, "Do our allies 'owe' us money?", "What role does [NATO] play today?", and "Do...