Thomas J. Biersteker
Encyclopedia
Thomas J. Biersteker is an American political scientist. He became the first Curt Gasteyger
Curt Gasteyger
Dr. Curt Gasteyger is the Director of the Association for the Promotion and Study of International Security , and Honorary Professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies , Geneva. He was the Professor for International Relations at the HEI from 1974 to 1994...

 Professor of International Security at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies is a highly selective postgraduate educational and research institute situated in Geneva, Switzerland...

 (IHEID) in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 in 2007.http://graduateinstitute.ch/Jahia/site/iheid/cache/bypass/teaching/faculty/professeurs?alphafilter=ABC&personneId=7172809d8369546fd700f77ccebfc86d He is an active member of 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...

 and the Social Science Research Council
Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...

.http://web.archive.org/web/20100831093806/http://www.cfr.org/about/membership/roster.html?letter=Bhttp://www.google.com/search?q=%22social+science+researech+council%22&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=off&tbs=#sclient=psy&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&source=hp&q=%22thomas+j.+biersteker%22+%22social+science+research+council%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=386d06466be45f5e&biw=989&bih=492 His more recent work included advising the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

’ Secretariat and the governments of Switzerland, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 on the design of targeted sanctions
Sanctions
Sanctions, plural of sanction, permission depending on context; contronym; may also refer to:Involving countries:* Economic sanctions, typically a ban on trade, possibly limited to certain sectors such as armaments, or with certain exceptions .*Trade sanctions, a type of economic sanction applied...

.http://www.google.com/search?q=biersteker+%22United+Nations%22+Switzerland%2C+Sweden+Germany+targeted+sanctions&hl=en&num=100

Education

Biersteker received a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, Department of Political Science in February 1977, from where he had received an M.S. in February 1975. His A.B. degree was from the University of Chicago, Public Affairs Program in June 1972. His PhD dissertation won the 1978 Helen Dwight Reid
Heldref Publications
Heldref Publications was the publishing division of the Helen Dwight Reid Education Foundation, a nonprofit educational organization. Professor Helen Dwight Reid, a political scientist who taught at Bryn Mawr College and the State University of New York at Buffalo, established the foundation in 1956...

 Award from 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 best dissertation in International Relations.http://graduateinstitute.ch/webdav/site/admininst/shared/iheid/800/biersteker/CV%20Thomas%20Biersteker.pdf

Career

Prior to the Graduate Institute he was the Olive C. Watson
Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
Thomas John Watson, Jr. was an American businessman, political figure, and philanthropist. He was the 2nd president of IBM , the 11th national president of the Boy Scouts of America , and the 16th United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union...

 Professor of International Studies at the Watson Institute for International Studies
Watson Institute for International Studies
The Watson Institute for International Studies is a center for the analysis of international issues at Brown University, focusing mainly on global security and political economy and society. Its faculty span a wide range of disciplines, including, anthropology, economics, political science, and...

, and earlier the Henry R. Luce Professor of Transnational Organizations in the Department of Political Science at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, from 1992-2006.http://www.watsoninstitute.org/news_detail.cfm?id=345 He was a professor at the School of International Relations, University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 from 1985–1992, where he was founder and Director of the Center for International Studies. He was an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, where he taught from 1976-1985.

Research

Biersteker's research interests focus on governance, the history of international relations, international political economy, sanctions, international organizations, diplomacy, peacekeeping, state-building and terrorism. He has written or co-authored a dozen scholarly books, including Countering the Financing of Global Terrorism with Sue Eckert (New York and London: Routledge Publishers, ISBN 978-0-415-39643-1, 2007), The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance with Rodney B. Hall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), Argument without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy with Robert S. McNamara, James G. Blight, Robert K. Brigham, and Col. Herbert Y. Schandler (New York: PublicAffairs Press, 1999)http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/08/reviews/990808.08matlot.html, State Sovereignty As Social Construct, with Cynthia Weber
Cynthia Weber
Cynthia Weber is a Professor of International Relations at Sussex University, UK, and co-Director of the media company Pato Productions.Cynthia Weber was born in New Jersey and raised in Pennsylvania. She received a BA in Political Science from West Virginia University , an MA from Sussex...

 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), and Distortion or Development? Contending Perspectives on the Multinational Corporation (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1978).

He has written dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and policy papers. Among the more influential are: "The “Peculiar Problems” of Scholarly Engagement in the Policy Process," International Studies Review (2008), "A Comparative Assessment of Saudi Arabia with other Countries of the Islamic World," published in An Update on the Campaign Against the Financing of Terrorism, New York: 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...

 (2004), "Reducing the role of the state in the economy: a conceptual exploration of IMF and World Bank prescriptions" in International Studies Quarterly
International Studies Quarterly
International Studies Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal of international studies and the official journal of the International Studies Association. It is published four times a year on behalf of the association by Wiley-Blackwell....

(1990), "Critical Reflections on Post-Positivism in International Relations," International Studies Quarterly (1989), and "The Dialectics of World Order: Notes for a future archaeologist of international savoir faire," co-authored with Hayward R. Alker, Jr., International Studies Quarterly (1984).
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