Scott Gates (born 29 December 1957 in Minneapolis, USA) is an American political scientist and economist. He is currently director of Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)'s Centre for the Study of Civil War (CSCW), a Norwegian Center of Excellence funded by the Research Council of Norway. He also holds a professorship in political science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
His current research includes Applied Game Theoretic Analysis, International Relations Theory, International Political Economy, Formal Models of Bureaucracy and Economic Modeling.
Gates holds a BA in political science and anthropology from the University of Minnesota (1980), an MA in political science from the University of Michigan (1983), an MSc in applied economics from the University of Minnesota (1985) and a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan (1989).
He moved to Norway in 1996, was a visiting research fellow at PRIO from 1997 to 1999 and continued as program leader and research professor until 2002, when he was appointed director of the CSCW. He has also held assistant and associate professorships at Michigan State University.
Gates was accepted in the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters in 2008.