John Mearsheimer
John Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is a top international scholar of political science and international relations who has written extensively about security issues and international politics. Mearsheimer has been described as the most influential realist of his generation and one of the most famous critics of American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. He is best known for developing the theory of offensive realism, which describes the interaction between great powers as being primarily driven by the rational desire to achieve regional hegemony in an anarchic international system. He has won several teaching awards and his work is frequently taught to, and read by, twenty-first century students of political science and international relations.
John Mearsheimer Professional Experience / Academic History
Professional Experience
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R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science
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Whitney H. Shepardson Fellow
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Postdoctoral Fellow
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Research Fellow
Academic History
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Ph.D., Political Science/International Relations
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B.A., Political Science
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Undergraduate Degree
EXPERTISE & EARLY CAREER
Mearsheimer an international relations theorist and one of the nation's most influential political scientists.
His works are widely read and debated by 21st-century students of international relations.
During the 1998–1999 academic year, he was the Whitney H. Shepardson Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
He was a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs.
He received honorary doctorates from universities in China, Greece, and Romania.
RECOGNITIONS
2020 James Madison Award
2003 Elected at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1985 Quantrell Award for Distinguished Teaching
1977 Clark Award for Distinguished Teaching
PUBLICATIONS
He has written many articles that have appeared in key journals such as International Security, Foreign Affairs and the London Review of Books.
His op-ed pieces have been published in the New York Times and the Financial Times, dealing with topics like Bosnia, nuclear proliferation, US policy towards India, the failure of Arab-Israeli peace efforts, the folly of invading Iraq, the causes of the Ukrainian crisis, and the likelihood of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.
BESTSELLING BOOKS
Conventional Deterrence (1983). Won the Edgar S. Furniss, Jr., Book Award.
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001, 2014). Won the Joseph Lepgold Book Prize and has been translated into nine different languages.
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (2007). Made the New York Times best seller list and has been translated into twenty-five different languages.
Why Leaders Lie (2011). Translated into thirteen different languages.
The Great Delusion (2018). Translated into nine different languages and was the recipient of the 2019 Best Book of the Year Award.
How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy (with Sebastian Rosato, 2023)