Brian Rathbun

Brian Rathbun is a Professor and Munk Chair in Global Affairs at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at The University of Toronto. He also has cross-appointments in the Departments of Political Science and Psychology.

Professor Rathbun comes from the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002. Rathbun integrates insights from political, social, evolutionary, cognitive and moral psychology into the study of international relations in an effort to answer the biggest questions surrounding foreign policy making. Are decision-makers rational? How does the fact that mankind is fundamentally a moral species influence in international relations? How do the ideological conflicts that structure domestic conflicts find expression in foreign policy-making? Committed to the research method that best provides leverage on the question at hand, he employs a variety of tools, including archival-based case studies, surveys of public opinion, elite interviewing, quantitative text analysis and laboratory experiments.

Professor Rathbun has written five solo-authored books, on humanitarian intervention, multilateral institution building, diplomacy, rationality and morality. His articles have appeared in International Organization, International Security, World Politics, American Political Science Review, International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Politics, Security Studies, the European Journal of International Relations, International Theory, and the Journal of Conflict Resolution among others. He is the recipient of the 2009 USC Parents Association Teaching and Mentoring Award. In 2019 he was recognized as a Distinguished Scholar by the Diplomatic Studies Section of the International Studies Association. His book, Diplomacy’s Value (Cornell University Press 2014) won the same section’s inaugural book award. His most recent book, Reasoning of State (Cambridge University Press 2019) won the 2018-2019 best book award from the Foreign Policy section of the American Political Science Association. Right and Wronged in International Relations (Cambridge University Press 2024) won the International Studies Association’ best book award for 2023.