VKC 305, Univ.Of Southern California 1740 Hope Street
Robert D. English
VKC 305, Univ.of Southern California 1740 Hope Street
Los Angeles, CA 90089 South Pasadena, CA 91030
(213) 821-3090 (626) 799-0937
Education
Ph.D., Department of Politics, Princeton University, 1995
Exam fields: international relations theory, comparative politics, Russian history
Dissertation: Intellectual and Political Origins of Soviet “New Thinking”
M.P.A., Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, 1982
Fields: foreign policy, national security, international economics
B.A., Department of History, University of California at Berkeley, 1980
President’s Undergraduate Fellowship for research at the University of Zagreb
toward honors thesis on Origins of the Croatian Peasant Party, 1899-1905
Teaching and research appointments
Associate Professor, School of International Relations, USC, since 2004 (Assistant Professor since 2001; joint appointment in Slavic Languages and Literatures since 2006)
Graduate courses: Russian and Post-Soviet Politics; Strategy and Arms Control; International Relations Theory; Social Science and Historical Research Methods Undergraduate: Russian and Post-Soviet Foreign Policy; Political Economy of Eurasia; Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict; Foreign Policy of East-Central Europe and the Balkans; Ethnicity, Nationalism and Religion in Post-Communist Politics
Visiting Fellow, SciencesPo (Centre des Ameriques), Paris, Spring 2009
Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ, 2000-2001
Assistant Professor, Bologna Center, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 1998-2000
Assistant Professor, Political Science Department, Allegheny College, 1995-1998
Security and arms control experience
Senior Researcher, Committee for National Security, 1985-1988
Analysis of strategic defense and space weapons, treaty verification and compliance,
general Soviet political-military affairs
Policy Analyst, U.S. Department of Defense, 1982-1985
Strategic and conventional force planning (e.g. B-52 programs, tactical air programs, anti-submarine warfare), program review analysis, drafting Congressional testimony
Rapporteur/Editor, Council on Foreign Relations, 1981
Rapporteur for Council study group on Solidarity and the Polish crisis; assistant editor for book on Soviet national security policy
Fellowships, grants, honors and awards
Religion, Identity & Global Governance new course grant, December 2008
Mortar Board Senior Honor Society, “tapped” in March, 2007
Joint Appointment as Associate Professor Slavic Languages and Literatures, 2006
Membership in World Political Forum, 2004
Edgar S. Furniss Award (Mershon Center, for outstanding contribution to the study
of national or international security), 2001
Marshal Shulman Prize (American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, for best book on foreign relations of the former USSR), 2001
NEH Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Study, 2000-2001
Institute for Advanced Study, School of Historical Studies, 1999 (declined)
Harold D. Lasswell Prize (American Political Science Assoc. dissertation award), 1996
Lambda Sigma “Best Professor” Award, Allegheny College, 1996
Princeton Society of Fellows, 1992-1993
MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, Center of International Studies, Princeton University, 1991-1992
Distinguished Fellow in International Relations, U.S. Fund for Peace/Soviet Peace Fund, 1989-1990
International Research and Exchanges Board Fellowship, for dissertation research in
the USSR, 1989-1990
Council on Foreign Relations, term member, 1988-1992
Ford Foundation “Dual Expertise” Fellowship in Soviet-East European and National Security Studies, 1988-1989
Superior Performance Commendation, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1984
Professional societies
International Studies Association; American Political Science Association; American
Assoc. for the Advancement of Slavic Studies; Association for the Study of Nationalities
Languages
Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Italian (fluent); French, Spanish (reading)
Publications
In progress
“A Presumption of Guilt: Western Media Bias in Portrayal of Russia’s Conflicts with Georgia and Ukraine,”draft article currently being revised for submission to Foreign Policy Analysis (with the assistance of Kate Svyatets)
Mikhail Gorbachev: A Political Biography (under contract at Potomac Books,
flagship volume in series “Shapers of International History”—ms. due to publisher by June 2010)
Our Serbian Brethren: History and Identity in the Making of Russia’s Balkan Diplomacy
(monograph—complete draft expected 2011)
Books
Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals, and the End of the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000). Recipient of the 2001 Marshal Shulman Prize and 2001 Edgar S. Furniss Award (see detail in “fellowships and awards” section above).
Rebirth: A History of Europe Since World War II (Boulder, CO: Westview Press,
1999), co-authors Cyril Black, Jonathan Helmreich, and James McAdams.
The Other Side: How Soviets and Americans Perceive Each Other (Brunswick, NJ: Transactions Press, 1987), co-author Jonathan C. Halperin.
Edited projects
“Hegemony and its Discontents,” co-authored introduction (with Steven Lamy) and edited special edition of International Studies Review, vol. 7, no. 4 (December 2005).
My Six Years With Gorbachev (University Park, Penn State University Press, 2000) This book, the memoirs of Gorbachev aide Anatoly Chernyaev, was extensively edited and annotated. I also wrote the introduction, “Six Years That Shook the World,” and was translator (with Elizabeth Tucker) from the original Russian.
Articles and chapters
“Nationalism and Post-Communist InternationalRelations,” in Patrick James
et al., eds., The ISA Compendium on Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration (Blackwell, forthcoming—2010). This is a 10,000-plus word chapter in the authoritative compendium of the International Studies Association.
“Prerequisite for a ‘Reset’: Understanding Russian Grievances,” in Global Dialogue special issue “AfterGeorgia,” vol. 11 (Summer-Fall 2009), pp. 11-29.
Articles and chapters, contd.
“Old Thinking and New: Khrushchev and Gorbachev,” in Abbot Gleason, ed.,
A Companion to Russian History (Oxford: Blackwell, 2009), pp. 429-450.
“Georgia: The Ignored History,” The New York Review of Books vol. LV, no. 17
(Nov. 2008), pp. 21-23. See also online at:
“Lessons From the Bloc: What Russia Should Have Taught us About Iraq,”
The National Interest no. 91 (Aug.-Sept. 2007), pp. 77-82. Available in The National
Interest Online at:
“The Collapse of the European State-Socialist Regimes,” in Bernd Greiner and
Christian Mueller, eds, Between ‘Total War’ and ‘Small Wars’: The Societal History of the Cold War (Hamburg: Institut fur Sozialforschung, 2007).
“Perestroika without politics: how realism misunderstands the Cold War’s end,” in Gary Goertz and Jack S. Levy, eds., Explaining War and Peace: Case Studies and Counterfactuals,” (New York and London: Routledge, 2007), pp. 211-232.
“The Sociology of New Thinking: Elites, Identity Change, and the Cold War’s End,” Journal of Cold War Studies (Spring 2005), pp. 43-80.
“Serbia and Montenegro in Crisis,” in Gorbachev and Grachev, eds., 1985-2005: Twenty Years that Changed the World (Rome: Laterza, 2005), pp. 269-281.
“Ideas and the end of the Cold War: rethinking intellectual and political change,” in Silvio Pons and Federico Romero, eds., Reinterpreting the End of the Cold War (New York and London: Frank Cass, 2005), pp. 116-136.
“The Road(s) Not Taken: Causality and Contingency in Analysis of the Cold War’s End,” in William C. Wohlforth, ed., Cold War Endgame: Oral History, Analysis, Debates (University Park: Penn State Univ. Press, 2004), pp. 243-272.
“Power, Ideas, and New Evidence on the Cold War’s End,” International Security vol. 26, no. 4 (Spring 2002), pp. 70-92.
“The Kosovo War,” in Joel Krieger, ed., The Oxford Companion to the Politics of the World (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 474-479.
“Sources, Methods, and Competing Perspectives on the End of the Cold War,” Diplomatic History vol. 21, no. 2 (Spring, 1997), pp. 283-294.
“Internal Enemies, External Enemies: Elites, Identity, and the Tragedy of Post-Soviet Georgia,” in Michael Kraus and Ronald D. Liebowitz, eds., Russia and Eastern Europe After Communism (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), pp. 207-222.
“Assessing Soviet Strategic Defenses,” Foreign Policy no. 70 (Spring, 1988), pp. 129-149. Co-authored with Stephen Daggett.
Articles and chapters, contd.
“SOI podryvaet strategicheskuiu stabil’nost,” Mezhdunarodnaia Zhizn’ (Moscow) no. 3, 1988, pp. 99-104.
“Eastern Europe’s Doves,” Foreign Policy no. 56 (Fall, 1984), pp. 44-60.
Review essays
“Change to Engagement in Britain’s Cold War Policy,” H-Diplo review no. 206 (22-23 December 2008). Essay reviewing Archie Brown, “The Origins of the Thatcher-Gorbachev Rapprochement,” Journal of Cold War Studies 10:3 (2008). Also available at:
“Power and Ideology in the Origins of Soviet Foreign Policy Change,” International History Review Vol XXVI, no. 2 (June, 2004), pp. 421-426. Essay reviewing Matthew Ouimet, The Rise and Fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Soviet Foreign Policy, and James Voorhees, Dialogue Sustained: The Multilevel Peace Process and the Dartmouth Conference.
“The Revolution Within,” The Nation, 26 May 2003, pp. 29-36. Essay
reviewing William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, Mikhail Gorbachev and Zdenek Mlynar, Conversations With Gorbachev, and George Breslauer, Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders.
“Condemned to Repetition?”, Journal of Cold War Studies vol. 4, no. 3
(Summer, 2002), pp. 148-151. Review of Andrew Bennet, The Rise, Fall,
and Reprise of Soviet/Russian Military Interventionism.
“There Are No Happy Reformers,” The Bologna Center Journal of International
Affairs vol. 2, no. 1 (Spring, 1999), pp. 109-116. Essay reviewing Mikhail
Gorbachev and Zdenek Mlynar, Reformatori nebyvaji stastni: dialog o Perestrojce,
Prazskem jaru a socialismu.
Other reviews
Reviews also published in: Political Science Quarterly, The American Review of Politics,
The Russian Review, Slavic Review, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Selected commentary and analysis of arms control
“Soviet Radar and American Distortion,” Nuclear Times, November-December
1987 (co-author Stephen Daggett)
“Collision in Space: The Star Wars Showdown,” The New Republic, 29 June 1987
“Linkage Imperils Soviet Arms Talks,” The Los Angeles Times, 24 May 1987 (co-
author William E. Colby)
“Bridge Under Troubled Waters,” The New Republic, 27 April 1987
“Star Wars May Destroy Strategic Defenses,” The New York Times, 15 February
1987 (co-author William E. Colby)
“Reagan’s ‘Peace Shield’ Can Attack Too,” The Washington Post, Outlook section,
15 February 1987
Breaking the Deadlock: A CNS Arms Control Proposal (Washington, DC:
Committee for National Security, January, 1987)
“Why Do The Soviets Fear Star Wars?”, Newsday, 16 July 1986
“To Abandon SALT is to Blind the US,” The New York Times, 2 July 1986 (co-
author William E. Colby)
“Offensive Star Wars,” The New Republic, 24 February 1986
“Cold Wars,” an exchange with E.P. Thompson in The Nation, 16 November
1985
Conference papers, panels and other presentations
March 6, 2010: Princeton University workshop on The End of the Cold War
After Twenty Years: Reconsiderations, Retrospectives, and Revisions, paper on “Ideas and Revolutions in Grand Strategy”
February 20, 2010: International Studies Association, New Orleans. Paper on “Media Bias in Portrayals of Russia’s Conflicts with Ukraine and Georgia”
November 9, 2009: Featured address on the end of the Cold War at The Legacy of 1989 conference of the Danish Foreign Ministry, Copenhagen University; November 10, presentation on “Russia’s Afghan Experience” at the Graveyards of Empire seminar of the Danish Institute for Military Studies, Copenhagen
May 14, 2009: Panelist for symposium on Russia and the Caucasus, Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI), Sciences Po, Paris
November 17, 2008: Invited Lecture on “Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia,” California Polytechnic University, Pomona.
September 12, 2008: USC College panel Georgia on Our Minds, “Georgian Nationalism and the Origins of Separatist Conflict with Russia”
April 30, 2008: USC Center for International Studies, paper on “Russia and Serbia: The Nationalist Background to Realpolitik”
March 7, 2008: USC Center for International Studies, “The Prospects for Russian-American Relations After Putin (and Bush),” panel discussion with Roald Sagdeyev and Vladimir Zelman
Papers, panels and presentations, contd.
December 3, 2007: “Russia’s Kosovo Conundrum,” lecture at the European Union Center of California, Scripps College
April 30, 2007: L.A. Philharmonic series “Shadow of Stalin,” discussant for
Arclight Cinema panel on film “Burnt by the Sun”
March 30, 2007: Discussant for panel on Contemporary Security Issues for
CIS-USC conference on international security and nonproliferation “Where
Have All the Weapons Gone?”
February 23, 2007: “Russian-American Relations at the Crossroads,” lecture at the Illinois World Affairs Council annual conference “Russia: Friend or Foe?”
May 2006: Institut fur Sozialforschung, Hamburg (Germany). Conference on “The Societal History of the Cold War,” paper on Moscow and the Collapse of European State-Socialist Regimes.
March 2006: International Studies Association, San Diego. Chair and Discussant for panel on Nationalism after the Collapse of Communism
March 2006: “After Yugoslavia” symposium (USC). Served as conference
chair, presentation on Politics and Myth in the Making of Russia’s Balkan Diplomacy
(for further detail, see below under “Professional Service”).
March 2005: World Political Forum, Torino (Italy). Panel on “The Quest For
National Identity in an Epoch of Integration,” presentation on Serbia and
Montenegro in Crisis.
September 2004: American Political Science Association, Chicago. Roundtable
on “Causal Explanations and Case Studies: World War I and the End of the
Cold War.”
November 2003: American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies,
Toronto. Panel on ideas and Soviet reform, presented paper on Ideas in the Transformation of Soviet Foreign Policy
June 2002: Joint conference of the Association for the Study of Nationalities and the Istituto per l’Europa Centro-Orientale e Balcanica at the University of Forli’ (Italy) on “Nationalism, Identity, and Regional Cooperation.” Conference paper titled A Separate Reality: The Russian Media and the Wars of Yugoslavia’s Collapse
June 2002: Conference of the Russian and Central-East European International Studies Associations, Moscow. Chaired panel on Russian-European Relations and served as discussant for panel on Russia—a New European Identity?
June 2001: Dartmouth-Watson Center conference; paper on Methodological and Theoretical Challenges in Analyzing New Evidence on the Cold War’s End
Papers, panels and presentations, contd.
April 2001: Russian International Studies Association (Moscow) inaugural convention, presented paper titled Our Serbian Brethren: History and Myth in Debates Over Russian National Identity
June 2000: The Gramsci Institute (Rome) and Fondazione Enciclopedia Italiana, conference on “The Relevance of Cold War Dynamics and Configurations in Recent International History.” Roundtable participant, main speaker on Power and Ideology in the Cold War’s End
September 1999: Johns Hopkins University Berlin Center, seminar on “Changes to the International System.” Panel presentation on Russia’s Place in
a Changing International System
June 1999: Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations, panel presentations on Soviet Elite Expectations in 1945 and Intellectuals, Ideas, and the
End of the Cold War
May 1999: SAIS-Bologna Center forum on crisis in Kosovo. Presentation on Kosovo: The Russian Perspective
July 1996: NEH summer seminar on constitutional democracy, Princeton University. Gave presentation entitled Russia’s 1996 Presidential Elections: Uncertain Implications for Democracy
November 1994: American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. Panel on post-communist politics, presented paper titled Romanticism and Realism in Post-Soviet Georgia
April 1993: Mershon Center, Ohio State University. Conference on post-Soviet and post-communist change, paper titled Leaders, Intellectuals, and Nationalism in Armenia and Georgia
December 1992: Yale University conference on Cold War historiography, paper on Sources and Methods: New Research on the Cold War’s End
July 1988: International Society of Political Psychology, discussant for panel on
Psychological Factors in the U.S.-Soviet Arms Race
April 1987: American Physical Society convention, Washington, DC. Panel on “Some Peripherals to SDI,” delivered paper titled Soviet Nuclear Strategy and Responses to U.S. Strategic Defenses
May 1985: Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, panelist-discussant for seminar on Warsaw Pact Cohesion
April 1984: London School of Economics conference on “Yugoslavia: The Case for Democratic Reform,” presented paper titled The Strategic Implications of Political Reform in Post-Tito Yugoslavia
Professional service
Convener and Organizer of the conference After Yugoslavia: A Symposiumfor Scholars and Practitioners (Davidson Center, March 30-31, 2006). This conference (sponsored by the USC Center for International Studies) was a national event, also open to the USC and larger academic community, for specialists on the former Yugoslavia. Featured panels ranged from “The Future of Kosovo” and “War Crimes, Tribunals and Reconciliation” to “Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia in Transition” and “The Role of the EU, US and Russia.” Participating were some 15 leading experts—including former senior ministry officials and ambassadors, UN officials and NGO activists, World Bank and other economists, other academic specialists.
Co-Program Chair (with Professor Steve Lamy) for the 2004 Montreal Convention of the International Studies Association.
Grant applications reviewed for the National Endowment for the Humanities (2003-present) and the Institute for Advanced Study (2005-present)
Book manuscripts reviewed for Harvard University Press, Yale University Press, Oxford University Press, Columbia University Press, Notre Dame University Press, Pennsylvania State University Press, Anthem Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Polity Press
Journal articles reviewed for American Political Science Review, International Security, World Politics, Journal of Cold War Studies, The American Historical Review, Russian Review and International History Review
University, College Service
USC—School of International Relations
Deputy Director, School of International Relations (since August 2009) Serve
as co-deputy (with Prof. David Kang) to SIR Director Professor John Odell.
Responsibilities include undergraduate curriculum and major concentrations, study abroad programs (criteria, selection, credits), departmental honors and awards, progressive degrees, academic integrity; liaison (with the College deans) on joint MAs and progressive degrees, search committee diversity, etc.
Faculty Undergraduate Adviser (since fall 2001) Oversee study abroad curricula, review IR major credits, extensive advising and grading dispute/appeals cases. Major initiatives include SIR enrollment in the Muskie Fellows program and establishment of a USC study abroad program with King’s College (London) War Studies Department
Committees: Chair, International Relations Theory Search Committee (2007-2008), McCone Chair Search Committee (2005-2008, 2009-2010), Senior Initiative Search (2005-2006), SIR Director’s Advisory Committee (2003-2006, 2009-2010), POIR Steering Committee (2005-2007), Center for International Studies Advisory Board (2002-2003, 2007-date), Curriculum Committee (2001-date) Graduate Admissions and Financial Aid Committee (2001-2002), International Relations-Political Science Ph.D. Merger Committee (2001-2002)