Jeffrey Taliaferro

Jeffrey (Jeff) W. Taliaferro is Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. His research and teaching focus on security studies, international relations theory, international history and politics, the grand strategies of the great powers, United States foreign policy, intelligence, cybersecurity and policy. He earned a bachelor's degree in history and political science from Duke University and a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University.

Professor Taliaferro's most recent book is of Defending Frenemies: Alliance Politics and Nonproliferation in US Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press, 2019). He is also the author of Balancing Risks: Great Power Intervention in the Periphery (Cornell University Press, 2004), which won the American Political Science Association's Robert L. Jervis and Paul W. Schroeder Award for the Best Book in International History and Politics. Professor Taliaferro is the co-author, with Norrin M. Ripsman and Steven E. Lobell, of Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics (Oxford University Press, 2016). He is also co-editor, along with Steven E. Lobell and Norrin P. Ripsman, of Neoclassical Realism, the State, and Foreign Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and of The Challenge of Grand Strategy: The Great Powers and the Broken Balance between the World Wars (Cambridge University Press, 2012). His articles have appeared in the journals International Security, Security Studies, International Studies Review, and Political Psychology. He has also contributed chapters to several edited volumes.

Professor Taliaferro has served on the editorial board of The Review of International Studies (2010-2016), the Director of the CIA's Historical Review Board (2008-2018), and the Steering Committee for Decadal Survey for Social and Behavioral Sciences for Application to National Security at the National Academy of Sciences (2017-2019). He currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals International Security, Security Studies, and International Politics. Previously, he served on the editorial boards of the journals Review of International Studies (RIS) and International Studies Review (RIS).

Professor Taliaferro held a research fellowship at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway in summer 2016 and a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC in AY 2017-2018. His current research project is an examination of how the United States and its allies negotiate crises of change in their security partnerships.

Research/Areas of Interest:

International Relations, Security Studies, International Relations Theories

Education

• PhD in Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States, 1997
• AM in Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States, 1995
• AB, Duke University, Durham, United States, 1991

Tufts University Appointments

• Professor
  Tufts University, School of Arts and Sciences, Political Science, Packard Hall, Medford, MA, 02155, USA 1 Jul 2020 - present
• Lecturer
  Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Packard Hall, Medford, MA, 02155, USA 12 Jul 2022 - present
• Associate Professor
  Tufts University, School of Arts and Sciences, Political Science, Packard Hall, Medford, MA, 02155, USA 1 Sep 2005 - 30 Jun 2020
• Assistant Professor
  Tufts University, School of Arts and Sciences, Political Science, Packard Hall, Medford, MA, 02155, USA 1 Sep 1998 - 31 Aug 2005
• Lecturer
  Tufts University, School of Arts and Sciences, Political Science, Packard Hall, Medford, MA, 02155, USA 1 Sep 1997 - 31 May 1998