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Home / People / Erik Gartzke
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Grand strategy, Foreign and defense policy, and International security

Erik Gartzke

Non-Resident Fellow

Erik Gartzke is a non-resident fellow at Defense Priorities and professor of political science and founding director of the Center for Peace and Security Studies (cPASS) at the University of California, San Diego.

Gartzke has been on the research faculty at UC-San Diego since 2007. Previous permanent faculty positions include Columbia University in the City of New York (2000–2007) and the Pennsylvania State University (1997–2000). He has held temporary positions at the Australian Defense College, Dartmouth University, the Ecole des Affaires Internationales (Sciences Po), the Naval Postgraduate School, UC-Santa Barbara, and at the University of Essex. Gartzke received a PhD in Political Science from the University of Iowa in 1997.

Gartzke’s research focuses on war, peace and international institutions. His scholarly interests include deterrence, nuclear security, the liberal peace, alliances, information and war, cyberwar, and the evolving technological nature of interstate conflict. He has written on the effects of global commerce, development, system structure and climate change on war. Recent studies include the role of military automation on patterns of conflict, geography/seasonality and disputes, cross/multi-domain deterrence and research contributing to the intellectual foundations of cyber conflict.

His research appears in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the Journal of Politics, Security Studies, World Politics, and elsewhere. His latest book manuscript, with Jon Lindsay, Elements of Deterrence: Strategy, Technology, and Complexity in Global Politics, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2024.

op-edUkraine‑Russia, Europe and Eurasia, Russia, Ukraine

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s outdated land fixation

By Erik Gartzke

June 7, 2025

In the wake of the President’s phone call with Vladimir Putin, talking heads opined that Russia had out-maneuvered the White House. Trump […]

op-edGrand strategy, Western Hemisphere

Trump cannot pick a fight with everyone

By Erik Gartzke

May 16, 2025

op-edGrand strategy

The misguided economics of modern territorial ambitions

By Erik Gartzke

April 30, 2025

More from Erik Gartzke

op-edUkraine‑Russia, Europe and Eurasia, Russia, Ukraine

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s outdated land fixation

By Erik Gartzke

June 7, 2025

op-edGrand strategy, Western Hemisphere

Trump cannot pick a fight with everyone

By Erik Gartzke

May 16, 2025

op-edGrand strategy

The misguided economics of modern territorial ambitions

By Erik Gartzke

April 30, 2025

op-edGrand strategy, Global posture

Predator or prey? It’s the wrong question for great powers today

By Erik Gartzke

April 7, 2025

op-edUkraine‑Russia, Europe and Eurasia, Russia, Ukraine

Territory won’t determine the winner of the Ukraine war

By Erik Gartzke

March 10, 2024

op-edMiddle East, Grand strategy, Iran

The way to avoid a war next time is to act, with restraint, now

By Erik Gartzke

March 7, 2024

RSVP

Erik Gartzke Past Events

virtualNATO, Alliances, Deterrence, Europe and Eurasia, Nuclear weapons

New York for Paris? NATO and extended deterrence in a new nuclear age

July 2, 2024

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