Paul Poast

About Paul Poast

Paul Poast is an associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago. He's also the director of graduate studies in the department of political science, faculty director of the Institute for Social Research Methods, a research affiliate of the Pearson Institute for the Study of Global Conflicts, an assistant director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, and a member of the Center for International Social Science Research advisory board.

Poast studies international relations, with a focus on international security. He is the author of three books, The Economics of War (McGraw Hill-Irwin, 2006), Organizing Democracy (University of Chicago Press, 2018), and Arguing About Alliances (Cornell University Press, forthcoming). He has authored or co-authored academic papers in journals such as International Organization, World Politics, Political Analysis, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Conflict Resolution. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, featured in various news outlets, such as The New York Times, Bloomberg, and the Washington Post, and received a number of awards, notably the Walter Isard Award and the Bruce Russett Award.

Poast received a PhD from the University of Michigan, an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA from Miami University. Prior to Chicago, Poast was an assistant professor in the department of political science at Rutgers University and, before beginning his PhD, Poast was a lecturer in the department of economics at The Ohio State University.