Alexander Wendt

Ralph D. Mershon Professor of International Security
Mershon Center and Political Science
204C Mershon Center
614.292.9219
wendt.23@osu.edu

Education
BA, Political Science and Philosophy, Macalester College (1982)
PhD, Political Science, University of Minnesota (1989)

Teaching/Research
Alexander Wendt is Ralph D. Mershon Professor of International Security and professor of political science at The Ohio State University. His areas of expertise include the philosophy of social science and social theory, international relations theory, global governance, and international security.

Wendt is interested in philosophical aspects of social science, with special reference to international relations.  He is the author of Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge, 1999), which in 2006 received the International Studies Association award for "Best Book of the Decade" and has been translated into at least 10 languages. In the 2011 TRIP survey of 1400 International Relations scholars he was named as the most influential scholar in the field over the past 20 years.

Recent publications also include New Systems Theories of World Politics, edited with Mathias Albert and Lars-Erik Cederman (Macmillan, 2010), based on a conference held at the Mershon Center in 2005. He has also published articles in International Organization, American Political Science Review, Review of International Studies, European Journal of International Relations, International Security, and Politics and Society.

Wendt is currently working on a book, Quantum Mind and Social Science, which explores the implications for social science of the possibility that consciousness is a macroscopic quantum mechanical phenomenon -– in effect, that human beings are walking wave/particle dualities.  He is also co-editor of International Theory: A Journal of International Politics, Law and Philosophy (Cambridge), which he founded with Duncan Snidal to bring together scholarship from international relations theory, international legal theory, and international political theory. 

Before coming to Ohio State in 2004, Wendt taught at Yale University, Dartmouth College, and University of Chicago.

Faculty Links
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Department web page
High-resolution photo
Faculty spotlight
Mershon Memo: Wendt named top scholar in International Relations
Arts and Sciences: Alexander Wendt Selected Top Scholar in International Relations
Global Perspectives: Ohio State's own Alexander Wendt named world's most influential scholar in international relations

Mershon Projects
Realism and Constructivism: From Debate to Dialogue (2005)
New Systems Theories of World Politics (2005)

Alexander Wendt
Ralph D. Mershon Professor of International Security
The Ohio State University