Prof. Paul K. MacDonald, Ph.D.

Paul K. MacDonald is Associate Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College.

He received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. Before coming to Wellesley, he taught for three years in the department of political science at Williams College. He has also held research positions at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, and the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.

MacDonald's work focuses on how powerful states create and sustain relations of dominance over others in international politics. His first book "Networks of Domination: The Social Foundations of Peripheral Conquest in International Politics" was published by Oxford University Press (2014). His second book "Twilight of the Titans: Great Power Decline and Retrenchment", co-authored with Joseph M. Parent, was published by Cornell University Press (2018). He has also published articles in "International Security", "International Organization", "Review of International Studies", "Security Studies", "Political Science Quarterly", "Foreign Affairs", "Daedalus", and the "American Political Science Review".

Paul K. MacDonald is a Visiting Fellow at CAS from May to July 2019 and is part of the CAS Research Group "Power Shifts and Institutional Change in International Institutions" of Prof. Dr. Bernhard Zangl. He will also participate in the workshop "International Institutions in an Age of Global Power Shifts: Negotiating Change" on 27 and 28 June 2019.