Areas of Teaching and Research Interest

International relations theory; U. S. and Japanese foreign policy; security studies; theories of social and political choice; political psychology.

Ongoing Research Projects

My research focuses on the political psychology of leadership in foreign policy decision making; US-Japan relations; and the role of identity politics and social norms in contemporary international relations. Recent publications include: Cultures of Order:  Leadership, Language, and Social Reconstruction in Germany and Japan (co-authored with Katja Weber, 2007), Groupthink or Deadlock: When Do Leaders Learn from Their Advisors? (2002) and International Relations in a Constructed World (co-edited with Vendulka Kubalkova and Nicholas Onuf, 1998).

My ongoing research includes several book projects. One, supported by the Social Science Research Council, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and Florida International University, explores the causes, and the foreign policy consequences, of national identity in US-Japan relations. A second, an edited book project entitled Ideational Allies:  Psychology, Constructivism and International Relations (co-edited with Vaughn P. Shannon) brings together a group of leading political psychologists and constructivist scholars to explore their mutual contributions to understanding the impact of ideas, identities, and normativity in international relations. Finally, a third is a jointly-authored (with Lisa Prugl) introductory international relations textbook project.