Professional Affiliation

Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and Director, Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, George Washington University (Former Wilson Center Fellow)

Expert Bio

Charles L. Glaser is professor in the Elliott School of International Affairs and the Department of Political Science, and is the Director of the Elliott School’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies.  His research focuses on international relations theory and international security policy.  Glaser is currently working on energy security and on U.S.  policy toward China.  Glaser holds a Ph.D. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard  University. He received a BS in Physics from MIT, and an MA in Physics and an MPP from Harvard. Before joining the George Washington University, Glaser was the Emmett Dedmon Professor of Public Policy and Deputy Dean at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. He has also taught political science at the University of Michigan; was a visiting fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford; served on the Joint Staff in the Pentagon; was a peace fellow at the United States Institute of Peace; and was a research associate at the Center of International Studies at MIT.

Wilson Center Project

"Analyzing U.S. National Security Policy toward China"

Project Summary

My project will analyze U.S. national security policy toward China. Over the past decade, China’s rise has generated much attention and debate, yet surprisingly little analysis has focused on certain key national security issues facing the United States. Such basic topics as the future of U.S. regional commitments to East Asia, the purposes of U.S. strategic nuclear forces in achieving U.S. goals in the Pacific region, the relationship between U.S. conventional force requirements and its nuclear capabilities, and the importance of maintaining a sphere of influence in East Asia all deserve extensive analysis. My basic approach is to start by drawing upon international relations theory—including arguments that address the pressures created by the international system, deterrence, alliance formation and cohesion, and the sources of states’ credibility—to lay the  foundation for analyzing these questions and for understanding the deep sources of disagreement over contending answers.

Major Publications

Rational Theory of International Politics: Logic of Competition and Cooperation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010

“How Oil Influences U.S. National Security,” International Security (Fall 2013)

“Will China’s Rise Lead to War?: Why Realism Does Not Mean Pessimism,” Foreign Affairs, (March/April 2011).