I am a professor of political science and international relations at Tufts University and a research fellow at Harvard University (CV here). My first book, Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs, 2010) won the 2011 International Studies Association’s (ISA) Best Book of the Year Award and was twice a finalist for the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Weapons of Mass Migration has been translated into German (Kopp-Verlag, 2016) and Italian (LEG Edizioni, 2017), and article-length adaptations have appeared in the English, Spanish and Portuguese editions of Military Review (November/December 2016 [Eng.]; May/June 2017 [Sp. and Port.]). (Capsule reviews of the hardcover and paperback English editions can be found here.)
As a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, I am completing a new book, a cross-national, mixed methods study that explores the influence of rumors, conspiracy theories, propaganda, so-called "fake news" and other forms of extra-factual information (EFI) on international politics. The book is provisionally entitled Fear and Present Danger: Extra-factual Sources of Threat Conception and Proliferation.
I am also co-author and co-editor of:
- Sex, Drugs, and Body Counts: The Politics of Numbers in Global Crime and Conflict (Cornell University Press, 2010) (with P. Andreas), about which Slate said, "Stop what you're doing and go and buy a copy.... It's a great book and it belongs forever on your bookshelf." (Jack Shafer in Slate Magazine); additional reviews can be found here;
- The Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics, 8th ed. (Rowman and Littlefield, 2015) (with R. Art), about which Stephen Walt wrote, "If you are going to assign one book to your students, this is the one." (Stephen Walt, Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government); additional reviews can be found here; and
- the newly published Coercion: The Power to Hurt in International Politics (Oxford University Press, 2018) (with P. Krause), about which Erica Chenoweth stated, "This is the most comprehensive, authoritative, and wide-ranging treatment of the topic.... Greenhill and Krause have produced a truly extraordinary volume containing a staggering array of exceptional chapters.... A truly essential text for any student of global affairs." (Erica Chenoweth, Korbel School, University of Denver); additional endorsements can be found on the book's cover.
I have published articles in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including International Security, Security Studies, International Studies Quarterly, Political Science Quarterly, Civil Wars, European Law Journal and International Migration. My research and political commentary have appeared in national and international media outlets, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, the BBC and the CBC. My work has also been cited and employed in legal briefs in cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and in policy briefs and planning guidance for other civilian and military organs of the U.S. government. I am the 2018 recipient of the ISSS Emerging Scholar Award, bestowed by the International Security Studies Section of the ISA to recognize scholars under the age of 45, or within 15 years of receiving their Ph.D., judged to have made [through the body of their publications] the most significant contribution to the field of security studies.
My research has been generously supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science Research Council, the MacArthur Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Eisenhower Foundation, the Neubauer Foundation and the World Bank. Outside of academia, I have served as a consultant to the United Nations and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Bank, and the Ford Foundation; as a defense analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense; and as an economic policy intern for then Senator John F. Kerry.
In addition to my research, teaching and advising activities, I serve as Director of International Relations at Tufts; Associate Editor of the journal International Security; Chair of the Conflict, Security and Public Policy Working Group at Harvard's Belfer Center; Research Affiliate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Security Studies Program; and on the editorial boards of Security Studies, Journal of Global Security Studies, Texas National Security Review, Sage Publications, and Peter Lang's immigration and security series.
I hold an SM and a PhD in Political Science from MIT, a CSS in International Management from Harvard University, and a BA (with a double major in Political Economy and Scandinavian Studies) from UC Berkeley. I have held pre- and/or post-doctoral fellowships at Stanford University’s Center for Security and Cooperation, at Harvard University’s John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and Belfer Center, and at Columbia University's Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies.