Alexander Thompson
Office: 2139 Derby Hall
154 N. Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210
(o): (614) 292-9491
(f): (614) 292-1146
email: thompson.1191@osu.edu
Alexander Thompson
Assistant Professor of Political Science
· International Relations
· International Organization
· International Political Economy
· Environmental Politics
· U.S. Foreign Policy
I have research and teaching interests in international relations, with particular emphasis on international organization and political economy. My book manuscript, under contract with Cornell University Press, is titled Channeling Power: The UN Security Council and American Statecraft in Iraq. It asks why powerful states often conduct coercive foreign policies through IOs—rather than operate alone or through ad hoc coalitions—and provides an explanation based on the logic of strategic information transmission by institutions with certain design properties. The theoretical arguments are assessed through an analysis of U.S. policy toward Iraq from 1990 to the present.
Much of my research addresses issues of institutional delegation and design at the international level, with specific projects on the domestic politics of legalization in the WTO, the “rational design” of the climate change regime, the principal-agent politics of multilateral weapons inspections, and the concept and determinants of IO performance. I also write and speak on the question of unilateralism versus multilateralism in U.S. foreign policy.
I co-direct, with Sarah Brooks, the workshop on Globalization, Institutions and Economic Security (GIES).
The tabs above contain more information on my research and teaching.
Recent Publications:
2006. “The Independence of International
Organizations: Concept and Applications.”
Journal of Conflict Resolution 50(2):
253-75. (with Yoram Haftel)
2006. “Coercion through IOs: The Security
Council and the Logic of Information
Transmission.” International Organization
60(1): 1-34. Winner of the Robert O. Keohane
Award for the best article of the year in
International Organization by an untenured
scholar.
2006. “Screening Power: International
Organizations as Informative Agents.” In
Delegation and Agency in International
Organizations, edited by Darren Hawkins,
David Lake, Daniel Nielson and Michael Tierney.
Cambridge University Press.
2006. “Management under Anarchy: The
International Politics of Climate Change.”
Climatic Change 78(1): 7-29.
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
