Robert L. Powell | |
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Academic background | |
Education | B.S., Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College M.Phil., International Relations, University of Cambridge M.A., PhD, Economics, University of California, Berkeley |
Thesis | Three essays in economics and international politics: nuclear deterrence theory; trade and a security dilemma; uncertainty and interest elasticity (1985) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of California,Berkeley |
Robert Lowell Powell (July 7,1956 - December 13,2021) was a political scientist. He was the Robson Professor of Political Science at the University of California,Berkeley. In the field of international relations,he made influential contributions regarding the application of game theory to war and political violence. [1]
Powell earned his Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Harvey Mudd College before travelling to the United Kingdom for his Master's degree at the University of Cambridge. He returned to California in the 1980s for his second master's degree and PhD at the University of California,Berkeley. [2]
Powell joined the political science faculty at the University of California,Berkeley in 1990 and published his first book titled Nuclear Deterrence Theory. [3] [4] [1] He published his second book In the Shadow of Power:States and Strategies in International Politics in 1999,showing that costly conflict can result from large and rapid shifts in the distribution of power,which increased the severity of commitment problems. [1] His most widely cited article was "War as a Commitment Problem." [1]
In 2005,Powell was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as someone who has "made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large." [5] In 2012,he was honored by the National Academy of Sciences for his "development of sophisticated game theory models of conflict that shine light on the strategic dilemmas of nuclear deterrence." [3] As the Robson Professor of Political Science,Powell was the co-recipient of the 2018 Berkeley Faculty Service Award. [6]
The University of California,Berkeley,is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley,California. Established in 1868 as the University of California,it is the state's first land-grant university and the founding campus of the University of California system. Its fourteen colleges and schools offer over 350 degree programs and enroll some 31,800 undergraduate and 13,200 graduate students. Berkeley ranks among the world's top universities.
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Thomas Crombie Schelling was an American economist and professor of foreign policy,national security,nuclear strategy,and arms control at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland,College Park. He was also co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He was awarded the 2005 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for "having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis."
Deterrence theory refers to the scholarship and practice of how threats or limited force by one party can convince another party to refrain from initiating some other course of action. The topic gained increased prominence as a military strategy during the Cold War with regard to the use of nuclear weapons and is related to but distinct from the concept of mutual assured destruction,according to which a full-scale nuclear attack on a power with second-strike capability would devastate both parties. The central problem of deterrence revolves around how to credibly threaten military action or nuclear punishment on the adversary despite its costs to the deterrer.
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John Joseph Mearsheimer is an American political scientist and international relations scholar,who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He has been described as the most influential realist of his generation.
Robert Jervis was an American political scientist who was the Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Politics in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. Jervis was co-editor of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs,a series published by Cornell University Press.
Kenneth Neal Waltz was an American political scientist who was a member of the faculty at both the University of California,Berkeley and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars in the field of international relations. He was a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War.
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Neil Joseph Smelser (1930–2017) was an American sociologist who served as professor of sociology at the University of California,Berkeley. He was an active researcher from 1958 to 1994. His research was on collective behavior,sociological theory,economic sociology,sociology of education,social change,and comparative methods. Among many lifetime achievements,Smelser "laid the foundations for economic sociology."
Albert W. Overhauser was an American physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is best known for his theory of dynamic nuclear polarization known as the Overhauser Effect in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
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Compellence is a form of coercion that attempts to get an actor to change its behavior through threats to use force or the actual use of limited force. Compellence can be more clearly described as "a political-diplomatic strategy that aims to influence an adversary's will or incentive structure. It is a strategy that combines threats of force,and,if necessary,the limited and selective use of force in discrete and controlled increments,in a bargaining strategy that includes positive inducements. The aim is to induce an adversary to comply with one's demands,or to negotiate the most favorable compromise possible,while simultaneously managing the crisis to prevent unwanted military escalation."
Robert L. Powell publications indexed by Google Scholar