Christian Reus-Smit

Chris Reus-Smit (born August 8, 1961) is Professor of International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence. He is a leading constructivist scholar in the field of international relations, and is arguably Australia's pre-eminent scholar in the field. Professor Reus-Smit's research focuses on the politics of International Ethics and institutions, and he has published widely on issues of American and Australian foreign policy, international law, global governance, multilateralism, human rights, and international relations theory. At present, he is co-editor (with Nicholas J. Wheeler) of the Cambridge Studies in International Relations book series, and (with Duncan Snidal) of the Oxford Handbook on International Relations.

Career

Reus-Smit was educated in Australia and the United States, receiving his B.A. and M.A. from La Trobe University in Melbourne. His M.A. dissertation concerned Australian foreign and security policy under during the Fraser era. After completing his M.A. in the mid-1980s, he taught at La Trobe University. During the mid-1990s, Reus-Smit undertook his PhD at Cornell University, along with other emerging constructivist scholars such as Audie Klotz and Richard Price. His doctoral dissertation was co-chaired by Peter J. Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, which was later published as The Moral Purpose of the State in 1999.

Reus-Smit returned to teach in Australia in 1995 and held positions as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at Monash University before taking up a position as Senior Fellow at the Australian National University in 2001, and was promoted to Professor in 2004. Reus-Smit served as Head of the Department of International Relations at the ANU from 2001 until 2010, and as Deputy Director of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) from 2006 to 2008. In September 2010 Reus-Smit moved to Florence to take up the Chair in International Relations at the European University Institute. Reus-Smit is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Publications

Books

• "Special Responsibilities: Global Problems and American Power" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, In press). Co-authored with Mlada Bukovansky, Ian Clark, Robyn Eckersley, Richard Price, and Nicholas Wheeler.
• "The Oxford Handbook of International Relations" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). Co-edited with Duncan Snidal.
• "International Crises of Legitimacy" (Special Issue, International Politics, 2007). Co-edited with Ian Clark.
• American Power and World Order (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004).
• The Politics of International Law Editor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
• Theories of International Relations Coauthored with Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater, Jacqui True, Matthew Patterson, and Richard Devetak (London: Palgrave, 2001, 2005, 2008 Editions).
• The Moral Purpose of the State (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
• Between Sovereignty and Global Governance Coedited with Albert Paolini and Anthony Jarvis. (London: Macmillan, 1998).

Selected Articles

• 'Human Rights in a Global Ecumene', "International Affairs", 87 (5), 2011.
• 'Struggles for Individual Rights and the Expansion of the International System', "International Organization", 65 (2), 207-242, 2011.
• 'Reuniting Ethics and Social Science in International Relations', "Ethics and International Affairs", 37 (2), 395-414, 2008. With Duncan Snidal.
• 'International Crises of Legitimacy', "International Politics", 44 (2/3), 2007.
• ‘Liberal Hierarchy and the License to Use Force’, Review of International Studies, 31 (December 2005).
• 'Imagining Society: Constructivism and the English School', British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 4 (3), 487-509, 2002.
• 'Human Rights and the Social Construction of Sovereignty', Review of International Studies, 27 (4), 1-20, 2001. (Awarded the BISA Prize.)
• 'The Strange Death of Liberal International Theory', European Journal of International Law, 12 (3), 573-593, 2001.
• 'The Constitutional Structure of International Society and the Nature of Fundamental Institutions', "International Organization", 51 (4), 1997.

See also

• United States-Australia relations

External links

• Reus-Smit's homepage at the European University Institute
• Interview with Reus-Smit by Theory Talks