Richard K. Betts is the Arnold Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies in the Department of Political Science, the director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies, and the director of the International Security Policy Program in the School of International and Public Affairs

School of International and Public Affairs

The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University is one of the most prestigious graduate schools of public policy in the world. Located on Columbia's Morningside Heights campus in the Borough of Manhattan, in New York City, the School has 15,000 graduates in more than 150...

 at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. He is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations

Council on Foreign Relations

The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...

.

Life

He received his AB, AM, and PhD in government from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. He has also served on the Harvard faculty as lecturer in government and as visiting professor of government. He was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution

Brookings Institution

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...

 until 1990. A former staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the National Security Council

United States National Security Council

The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...

, and the Walter Mondale

Walter Mondale

Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...

 presidential campaign in 1984

United States presidential election, 1984

The United States presidential election of 1984 was a contest between the incumbent President Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate. Reagan was helped by a strong economic recovery from the deep recession of 1981–1982...

. Betts has been an occasional consultant to the National Intelligence Council

National Intelligence Council

The National Intelligence Council is the center for midterm and long-term strategic thinking within the United States Intelligence Community . It was formed in 1979...

 and Central Intelligence Agency

Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

. His writings have earned five prizes, including the Woodrow Wilson Award of the American Political Science Association

American Political Science Association

The American Political Science Association is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903, it publishes three academic journals...

for the best book in political science.

Selected publications

• Soldiers, Statesmen, and Cold War Crises, 2nd Edition (Columbia University Press, 1991) ISBN 0231074697
• Surprise Attack: Lessons for Defense Planning (Brookings Institution, 1982) ISBN 0815709293
• Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance (Brookings Institution, 1987) ISBN 0815709358
• Military Readiness: Concepts, Choices, Consequences (Brookings Institution, 1995) ISBN 0815709056
• The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked, coauthor and editor (1979) ISBN 0815730721
• Nonproliferation and U.S. Foreign Policy (1980)
• Cruise Missiles: Technology, Strategy, Politics, coauthor and editor (1981) ISBN 0815709315
• Conflict After the Cold War: Arguments on Causes of War and Peace, 2nd edition (Longman 2001) ISBN 032120946X

Articles

• "The Soft Underbelly of American Primacy: Tactical Advantages of Terror," in Political Science Quarterly (Spring 2002), reprinted in September 11, Terrorist Attacks, and U.S. Foreign Policy, edited by Demetrios James Caraley (Academy of Political Science 2002).

External links

• Faculty bio at Columbia University