Education:

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University

Expertise:

U.S. foreign policy, international politics, US foreign economic policy; international political economy

Professor Nau discusses his book Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions, and Ideas and reflects on the transformation of the International Affairs field in recent decades.
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Background:

Henry R. Nau holds a B.S. degree in Economics, Politics and Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His latest book, Conservative Internationalism: Armed Diplomacy Under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan will be published in August 2013 by Princeton University Press.

Professor Nau directs the US-Japan-South Korea Legislative Exchange Program, semiannual meetings between Members of the US Congress, Japanese Diet, and Korean National Assembly. Previously, he taught as Assistant Professor at Williams College (1971-73) and as Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, Stanford, and Columbia Universities. During academic year 2011-12 he was the W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow and the Susan Louise Dyer Peace National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has received numerous grants from, among others, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Council on Foreign Relations, Century Foundation, Japan-US Friendship Commission, Rumsfeld Foundation, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

From January 1981 to July 1983, he served on President Reagan's National Security Council as senior staff member responsible for international economic affairs. Among other duties he was the White House sherpa for the Annual G-7 Economic Summits at Ottawa (1981), Versailles (1982), and Williamsburg (1983) and a special summit with developing countries at Cancun, Mexico (1982). Dr. Nau also served, in 1975-1977, as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Department of State. In 1977 he received the State Department's Superior Honor Award.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa and Council on Foreign Relations, Nau served two years as a Lieutenant in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Selected Publications:

His published books include, among others:

• Worldviews of Rising Powers: Domestic Foreign Policy Debates in China, India, Iran, Japan, and Russia (Oxford University Press, 2012), Co-editor and Contributor;
• Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions, and Ideas, (CQ Press, 2011; 3rd Edition);
• At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy (Cornell University Press, 2002), also published in Japanese by Yuhikaku Press, 2006;
• Trade and Security: US Policies at Cross-Purposes (American Enterprise Institute Press, 1995);
• The Myth of America's Decline: Leading the World Economy into the 1990s (Oxford University Press, 1990; paperback with new preface, 1992), also published in Japanese by TBS Britannica, 1994; and
• National Politics and International Technology: Nuclear Reactor Development in Western Europe (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974).

Recent articles include:

• "Obama Puts the World at Risk," Defining Ideas, A Hoover Institution Journal, January 9, 2013
• "Ambitious Diplomacy, Fading Firepower: Is President Obama turning America into a paper tiger?", National Review Online, August 13, 2012..
• "The Jigsaw Puzzle & the Chessboard: The Making and Unmaking of Foreign Policy in the Age of Obama," Commentary Magazine, May 2012.
• "Ideas Have Consequences: The Cold War and today," International Politics, (July 2011);
• "No Alternative to 'Isms'," International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 55, Iss. 2, pp 487–491 (June 2011);
• "Obama's Foreign Policy: The Swing Away from Bush" Policy Review, No. 160, April/May 2010;
• "No Enemies on the Right", The National Interest, No. 78 (Winter 2004/05).

» Read more about Professor Nau in By George

Courses Taught: