Professional Affiliation

Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University

Expert Bio

Elizabeth N. Saunders is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.  Her research and teaching interests focus on international security and U.S. foreign policy.  Her book, Leaders at War: How Presidents Shape Military Interventions, was published in 2011 by Cornell University Press in the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs Series and won the 2012 Jervis-Schroeder Best Book Award from APSA’s International History and Politics section.  

She has previously been a postdoctoral fellow at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University; a visiting scholar at the American Political Science Association’s Centennial Center; a Brookings Institution Research Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies; and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.  Her work has appeared in International Studies Quarterly, International Security, the American Journal of Political Science, and International Studies Review.  Dr. Saunders received her undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy and astrophysics from Harvard University; her M.Phil. in international relations from the University of Cambridge; and her Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.

Wilson Center Project

“The Electoral Disconnection in US Foreign Policy”

Major Publications

Leaders at War: How Presidents Shape Military Interventions. Ithaca:Cornell University Press. 2011.