Alexander A. Cooley is an American political scientist. He is Claire Tow Professor at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

. He served as the 15th director of the Harriman Institute of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and is currently the Vice Provost for Research, Libraries and Academic Centers at Barnard College.

Biography

Cooley graduated from Swarthmore College and received his Ph.D. from

, studying under Hendrik Spruyt and Mark von Hagen. He taught at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

before joining the faculty of

in 2001, eventually serving as chair of the college's political science department. In 2015, he was named director of Columbia's Harriman Institute, serving in the position for six years. Cooley has written extensively about the politics of the Former-Soviet states, with an emphasis on

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

and the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

, as well as the liberal international order and democratic backsliding. His analysis of great power politics in

was called by

National Bureau of Asian Research The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) is an American non-profit, research institution based in Seattle, Washington, with a branch office in Washington, D.C. NBR brings together specialists, policymakers, and business leaders to examine ...

as "possibly the most cogent critique of post–Cold War orthodoxy published to date."

Bibliography

* ''Logics of Hierarchy: The Organization of Empires, States, and Military Occupations,'' Cornell University Press, 2005. * Base Politics: Democratic Change and the U.S. Military Overseas, Cornell University Press, 2008. * ''Contracting States: Sovereign Transfers in International Relations,'' Princeton University Press, 2009. * ''Great Games, Local Rules: The New Great Power Contest in Central Asia,'' Oxford University Press, 2015. * ''Ranking the World: Grading states as a Tool of Global Governance'', Cambridge University Press, 2015 * ''Dictators Without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia'', Yale University Press, 2017. * ''Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order'', Oxford University Press, 2020. * ''Undermining American Hegemony: Goods Substitution in World Politics,'' Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Personal life

Cooley's father was journalist John K. Cooley, who served as an editor of ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooley, Alexander Living people Swarthmore College alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American political scientists Johns Hopkins University faculty Barnard College faculty Columbia University faculty Year of birth missing (living people)