Randall L. Schweller is Professor of

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

at The

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, where he has taught since 1994. He earned his PhD from

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 ...

in 1993 and was as an Olin Fellow at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1993-94. His primary teaching and research interests include international security and international relations theory, and he is perhaps best known for his Balance of Interests theory, a revision to

Kenneth Waltz Kenneth Neal Waltz (; June 8, 1924 – May 12, 2013) was an American political scientist who was a member of the faculty at both the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars in the field of ...

's Balance of Power theory and Stephen Walt's Balance of Threat theory. His work on this subject includes: Randall Schweller, "Tripolarity and the Second World War", ''International Studies Quarterly'' 37:1 (March 1993) and Randall Schweller, ''Deadly Imbalances: Tripolarity and Hitler's Strategy of World Conquest'' (Columbia University Press, 1998). Often associated with Structural Realists like Kenneth Waltz and Stephen Walt, he may more accurately be portrayed as a

Neoclassical Realist Neoclassical realism is a theory of international relations and an approach to foreign policy analysis. Initially coined by Gideon Rose in a 1998 '' World Politics'' review article, it is a combination of classical realist and neorealist &nd ...

(a term coined by

Gideon Rose Gideon Rose is a former editor of ''Foreign Affairs'' and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as Associate Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 under the ...

) because of his willingness to consider non-structural explanations of state behavior (other neoclassical realists include

Fareed Zakaria Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (; born 20 January 1964) is an Indian-American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's ''Fareed Zakaria GPS'' and writes a weekly paid column for ''The Washington Post.'' He has been a columnist ...

Thomas J. Christensen Thomas J. Christensen is an American political scientist. He is the James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Biography Christensen received his B.A. with honors ...

, and

William Wohlforth William Curti Wohlforth (born 1959) is the Daniel Webster Professor of Government in the Dartmouth College Department of Government, of which he was chair for three academic years (2006-2009). Wohlforth was Editor-in-chief of ''Security Studies ...

). For instance: Randall Schweller and David Priess, "A Tale of Two Realisms: Expanding the Institutions Debate," ''Mershon International Studies Review'' 41:2 (April 1997) He is also credited with reemphasizing the distinction between status-quo and revisionist states and incorporating that difference into realist theories of state behavior. Randall Schweller, "Bandwagoning for Profit: Bringing the Revisionist State Back in", ''International Security'' 19:1 (Summer 1994) and Randall Schweller, "Neorealism's Status-Quo Bias: What Security Dilemma?" ''Security Studies'' 5:3 (Spring 1996). His current work examines why states sometimes fail to balance (focusing on the

internal dynamics Internal may refer to: *Internality as a concept in behavioural economics *Neijia, internal styles of Chinese martial arts *Neigong or "internal skills", a type of exercise in meditation associated with Daoism *''Internal (album)'' by Safia, 2016 ...

of states, which directly challenges the unitary actor assumption of Structural Realism). He has a book on this subject (2008) from

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

that is an extension of his article: "Unanswered Threats: A Neoclassical Realist Theory of Underbalancing," ''International Security'' 29:2 (Fall 2004).

References

External links

professional website and his curriculum vita

"A Perspective From A Pro-Trump Political Science Professor"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schweller, Randall Ohio State University faculty Stony Brook University people Columbia University alumni Harvard Fellows Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Neoclassical realists(international relations)