Steering Committee

Thomas Biersteker is the first holder of the Curt Gasteyger Chair in International Security and Conflict Studies, established thanks to the support of the APESI to honour Professor Gasteyger, HEI professor emeritus.

The author/editor of nine books, including State Sovereignty as Social Construct, The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance, and Countering the Financing of Terrorism, Biersteker’s research focuses primarily on international relations theory and economic aspects of contemporary global security issues. His recent activities include work with the UN Secretariat and the governments of Switzerland, Sweden, and Germany on the design of targeted sanctions.

He was previously Professor of Political Science at Brown University where he served for many years as Director of the Watson Institute for International Studies. He has also taught at Yale University and at the University of Southern California. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an Honorary Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, and a Fellow of the Club of Madrid.

• International relations theory
• The economic aspects of contemporary security issues

• Countering the Financing of Global Terrorism (Routledge Publishers, 2006), co-edited with Sue Eckert.
• International Law and International Relations: Bridging Theory and Practice (Routledge Publishers 2006) co-edited with Veronica Raffo, Peter Sprio, and Chandra Sriram.
• War, Money and Survival (Geneva: International Committee of the Red Cross, 2000), co-edited with S. Fleming.
• The Re-Bordering North America (Routledge Publishers, 2003), co-edited with Peter Andreas.
• The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2002), co-edited with Rodney B. Hall.
• (with Robert S. McNamara) "Lessons of Vietnam for the 21st Century," in Argument without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy (PublicAffairs Press, 1999).
• State Sovereignty As Social Construct (Cambridge University Press, 1996), co-edited with Cynthia Weber.