STEVEN E. LOBELL portrait
  • Professor
  • Professor, Political Science Department
801-585-5259

Publications

  • Steven Lobell & Jordan Ernstsen (2021). The Liberal International Trading Order (LITO) in an Era of Shifting Capabilities: Peers, Near-Peers, and The Durability of the Liberal Trade Regime. International Affairs. Vol. 97, 1489-1504. Published, 09/01/2021.
    https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiab095
  • Steven Lobell (2020). Preventive military strike or preventive war? The fungibility of power resources. Cambridge Review of International Affairs. Accepted, 12/21/2020.
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09557...
  • Steven Lobell (2020). Why Israel launched a preventive military strike on Iraq’s nuclear weapons program (1981): The fungibility of power resources. Journal of Strategic Studies. Published, 11/18/2020.
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01402...
  • Thomas Juneau & Steven E. Lobell, Norrin M. Ripsman, Larry Rubin (2019). Neoclassical Realism: Domestic Politics, Systemic Pressures, and the impact on Foreign Policy since the Arab Spring. (pp. 8-22). The Routledge Handbook of the International Relations in the Middle East. Published, 04/01/2019.
  • Steven Lobell (2018). Granular Theory of Balancing. International Studies Quarterly. Vol. 62, 593-605. Published, 05/2018.
    https://academic.oup.com/isq/article-abstract/62/3...
  • Jeffrey Taliaferro, Steven E. Lobell, Norrin Ripsman (2018). Is Peaceful Change in World Politics Always Desirable? A Neoclassical Realist Perspective. International Studies Review. Vol. 20, 283-291. Published, 05/2018.
    https://academic.oup.com/isr/article-abstract/20/2...
  • Steven Lobell & Asle Toje (2018). How Should the US respond to a Rising China?. (pp. 349-362). Oxford University Press. Published, 05/2018.
    https://global.oup.com/academic/product/will-china...
  • Norrin Ripsman & Steven Lobell, Jeffrey Taliaferro (2017). Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics. Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2017. Published, 07/2017.
  • Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016). Published, 05/2016.
    https://global.oup.com/academic/product/neoclassic...

Research Statement

 

Steven E. Lobell is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah.

Bio: Steven Lobell brings talent and a career of experience in identifying and promoting significant and emerging areas at the nexus of international security and international relations; encouraging research collaborations by bringing scholars, students, and policymakers together; and generating outcomes such as publications, grants, sponsored research, a new degree program and conferences.

Interview and Minerva news, for a more extensive bio, see Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) “Alumni Confidential.”

Publications: Steven has published seven single, co-edited, and co-authored books (including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Stanford University Press), twenty-four peer review journal articles, and sixteen book chapters.

Research: Steven’s areas of research include: Neoclassical Realism, Political Economy of Security, Near-Crisis and Crisis Escalation, Grand Strategy, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Emerging and Weak States. He teaches courses on American Foreign Policy, Rise and Decline of the Great Powers, International Relations, and the Foundations of International Security. His research is interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, building on political science, economics, 19th and 20th century diplomatic history, decision making, security studies, and area/regional studies (Middle East and Asia).

Grants/Fellowships/Awards: Steven Lobell is the PI of a Minerva Research Initiative and Office of Naval Research award ($1,179,073), “Power Projection, Deterrence Strategies, and Escalation Dynamics in an Era of Challenging Near Peers, Rogue States, and Terrorist and Insurgent Organizations.” His current book project, A Granular Theory of Balancing, received funding from the Charles Koch Foundation and the Betty Glad research award. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar award (Israel), a visiting fellowship at The Nobel Institute, funding from the Israel Institute and the Betty Glad Award, the Superior Research Award, and a University Teaching Award. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Security Studies and the Journal of Strategic Studies.

The Near Crisis Project: Why What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You,” organized and presented at the workshop hosted at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council, Washington, D.C. (10-11:30 am, ET, in person and virtual, January 27, 2023). A workshop on crisis prevention and pre-crisis management featuring a panel of speakers from the research team followed by a moderated discussion. YouTube video. He also presented findings at NATO HQ and SHAPE.

Key Words: International Security, Neoclassical Realism, Near-Crisis Escalation, Grand Strategy, Weak States, American Foreign Policy, Political Economy of Security.

 

RESEARCH AWARDS, GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS (recent)

2023

  • The Near Crisis Project: Why What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You,” organized and presented at the workshop hosted at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council, Washington, D.C. (10-11:30 am, ET, in person and virtual, January 27, 2023). A workshop on crisis prevention and pre-crisis management featuring a panel of speakers from the research team followed by a moderated discussion. YouTube video.
  • Presentations on Crisis Prevention at NATO HQ and SHAPE on NATO’s New Strategic Concept.

2022

  • Sabbatical Award, 2022-2023.
  • “A Granular Theory of Balancing,” Charles Koch Foundation ($21,107.00, 7/1/22-6/30/23).
  • Betty Glad Research Grant ($8,500).

2021

  • Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) “Alumni Confidential” Interview and Minerva news.

2020

  • Grant Incentive Course Release, NSF application (fall 2020)

2018

2017

  • Israel Institute, 2017. “The Use of Force to Prevent Nuclear Proliferation.”
  • Research recognized at Showcase of Extraordinary Faculty Achievements, University of Utah.

2016

  • College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (CSBS) Superior Research Senior Award.
  • Graduate Convocation speaker.

Books

  1. Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics  (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), with Norrin M. Ripsman and Jeffery W. Taliaferro. Chinese version (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2017).
  2. The Political Economy of Regional Peacemaking (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016), with Norrin M. Ripsman, eds.
  3.  The Challenge of Grand Strategy: The Great Powers and the Broken Balance between the World Wars (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), with Jeffrey W. Taliaferro and Norrin M. Ripsman, eds. (https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139136808)
  4. Beyond Great Powers and Hegemons: Why Secondary States Support, Follow, or Challenge (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012), with Kristen P. Williams and Neal G. Jesse, eds.
  5. Neoclassical Realism, The State, and Foreign Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), with Norrin M. Ripsman, and Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, eds
  6. Ethnic Conflict and International Politics: Explaining Diffusion and Escalation (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), with Philip Mauceri, eds.
  7. The Challenge of Hegemony: Grand Strategy, Trade, and Domestic Politics (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2003, paperback edition, 2005).

Journal Articles

  1. “Tipping Points: Challenges in Analyzing International Crisis Escalation,” International Studies Review, Vol 24, No. 3 (September 2022), with Chong Chen, Jordan Roberts, Shikshya Adhikari, Victor Asal, Kyle Beardsley, Edward Gonzalez, Nakissa Jahanbani, Patrick James, Norrin Ripsman, Scott Silverstone, and Anne van Wijk.

  2. “The Liberal International Trading Order (LITO) in an Era of Shifting Capabilities: Peers, Near-Peers, and The Durability of the Liberal Trade Regime,” International Affairs, forthcoming 2021, with Jordan Ernstsen.
  3. Preventive military strike or preventive war? The fungibility of power resources,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs, published online, 2021.
  4. Why Israel launched a preventive military strike on Iraq’s nuclear weapons program (1981): The fungibility of power resources,” Journal of Strategic Studies, published online, 2020.
  5. Correspondence: Neoclassical Realism and Its Critics,” International Security Vol. 43, No. 2 (Fall 2018), 193-203, with Jeffrey W. Taliaferro and Norrin M. Ripsman.
  6. Granular Theory of Balancing,” International Studies Quarterly Vol. 62, No. 2 (2018), 593-605
  7. Is Peaceful Change in World Politics Always Desirable? A Neoclassical Realist Perspective,” International Studies Review, Vol. 20, No. 2 (June 2018), 283-291, with Jeffrey W. Taliaferro and Norrin M. Ripsman.
  8. Daniel Flemes and Steven E. Lobell, (Guest Editors) Special Issue: “Regional Contestation to Rising Powers,” International Politics Vol. 52, No. 2 (February 2015).
  9.  “Engaging the Enemy and the Lessons for the Obama Administration,” Political Science Quarterly Vol. 128, No. 2 (Summer 2013): 261-88.
  10. “Bringing Balancing Back In: Britain’s Targeted Balancing, 1936-1939,” The Journal of Strategic Studies Vol. 35, No. 6 (2012): 747-775.
  11. “Winning Friends and Influencing Enemies among Great Power Rivals: The Case of Washington, Beijing, and Moscow, 1969-1979,” The Chinese Journal of International Politics Vol. 4, No. 2 (spring 2011): 205-230.
  12. “Great Powers in a Restrictive International Environment,” International Journal Vol. 66, No. 2 (spring 2011): 335-350.
  13. “REALISM AND THE CHANGING INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM: WILL CHINA AND RUSSIA CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO?” THE CHINA AND EURASIAN FORUM QUARTERLY VOL. 8, NO. 4 (2010): 129-151, WITH KATHLEEN J. HANCOCK

  14. “Second Face of Security Strategies: Anglo-German and Anglo-Japanese Trade Concessions during the 1930s,” Security Studies Vol. 17, No. 3 (2008): 438-467.
  15. “The Second Face of American Security: The U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement as Security Policy,” Comparative Strategy Vol. 27, No. 1 (2008): 1-13.
  16. “The Second Face of Security: Britain’s ‘Smart’ Appeasement Policy towards Japan and Germany,” International Relations of the Asia-PacificVol. 7, No. 1 (2007): 73-98.
  17. “The Political Economy of War Mobilization: From Britain’s Limited Liability to a Continental Commitment” International Politics Vol. 43, No. 3 (July 2006): 283-304.
  18. “The International Realm, Framing Effects, and Security Strategies: Britain in Peace and War,” International Interactions Vol. 32, No. 1 (2006): 27-48.
  19. “The Politics of National Security: The Battles for Britain,” Conflict Management and Peace Science Vol. 21, No. 4 (2004): 269-286.
  20. “The Bush Defense Strategy of Assurance and Dissuasion: Lessons from Philip IV of Spain,” Comparative Strategy Vol. 23, No. 2 (2004): 197-208.
  21. “Historical Lessons to Extend America’s Great Power Tenure,” World Affairs Vol.166, No. 4 (spring 2004): 175-184.
  22. “War is Politics: Offensive Realism, Domestic Politics, and Security Strategies,” Security Studies Vol. 12, No. 1 (winter 2002/03): 164-94.
  23. “Britain’s Paradox: Cooperation or Punishment prior to World War I,” Review of International Studies Vol. 27, No. 2 (April 2001): 169-186.
  24. “The Grand Strategy of Hegemonic Decline: Dilemmas of Strategy and Finance,” Security Studies Vol. 10, No. 1 (autumn 2000): 92-119.
  25. “Second Image Reversed Politics: Britain’s Choice of Freer Trade or Imperial Preferences, 1903-1906, 1917-1923, 1930-1932,” International Studies Quarterly Vol. 43, No. 4 (December 1999): 671-694.

BOOK CHAPTERS

  1. "Neoclassical Realism: Domestic Politics, Systemic Pressures, and the impact on Foreign Policy since the Arab Spring,” with Norrin M. Ripsman, Larry Rubin, and Thomas Juneau, in The Routledge Handbook of the International Relations in the Middle East, Shahram Akbarzadeh, eds., (London: Routledge, 2019), 8-22. (https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-International-Relations-in-the-Middle-East/Akbarzadeh/p/book/9780367730932)
  2. Steven E. Lobell and Brad Nicholson, “Structural Modifiers, the Non-Proliferation Treaty Regime, and Fostering a Less Competitive International Environment,” in International Institutions and Power Politics: Theory and Practice in the Twenty-First Century, T.V. Paul and Anders Wivel, eds., (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2019).
  3. “How Should the US respond to a Rising China?” in Will China’s Rise be Peaceful? Asle Toje, ed., (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 349-362.
  4. “Realism, Balance of Power, and Power Transitions,” in Accommodating Rising Powers: Past, Present and Future, T.V. Paul, ed., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2016), 33-52.
  5. Norrin M. Ripsman and Steven E. Lobell, “Introduction: Conceptualizing the Political Economy of Regional Transitions.” The Political Economy of Regional Peacemaking (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016)
  6. Steven E. Lobell, “Chapter Two: The Second Face of Regional Peacemaking: Israel and Jordan, 1985-2001.” The Political Economy of Regional Peacemaking (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016)
  7. “Balance of Power Theory,” Oxford Bibliographies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199743292/obo-9780199743292-0083.xml
  8. Beyond Great Powers and Hegemons: Why Secondary States Support, Follow, or Challenge (Stanford University Press, 2012), with Kristen P. Williams and Neal G. Jesse, eds.
  9. Steven E. Lobell, Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, and Norrin M. Ripsman, “Introduction: Grand Strategy during the Interwar Years,” 1-36. The Challenge of Grand Strategy: The Great Powers and the Broken Balance between the World Wars (Cambridge University Press, 2012), with Jeffrey W. Taliaferro and Norrin M. Ripsman, eds. 
  10. “From Balance of Power to Components of Power – British Grand Strategy in the 1930s,” 147-170. The Challenge of Grand Strategy: The Great Powers and the Broken Balance between the World Wars (Cambridge University Press, 2012), with Jeffrey W. Taliaferro and Norrin M. Ripsman, eds. 
  11. Neal G. Jesse, Steven E. Lobell, Galia Press-Barnathan, and Kristen P. Williams, “The Leader Can’t Lead When the Followers Won’t Follow: The Limitations of Hegemony.”
  12. “Power Disparities and Strategic Trade: Bandwagoning, Balking, and the Domestic Consequence of U.S.-Jordan Trade Concessions.”
  13. “Structural Realism/Offensive and Defensive Realism” in Robert Denemark et. al. eds., The International Studies Compendium Project (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 6651-6669.
  14. Neoclassical Realism, The State, and Foreign Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2009), with Norrin M. Ripsman, and Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, eds.
  15. Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, Steven E. Lobell, and Norrin M. Ripsman, “Introduction: Neoclassical Realism, the State, and Foreign Policy,” 1-41.
  16. “Threat Assessment, the State, and Foreign Policy: A Neoclassical Realist Model,” 42-74.
  17. Norrin M. Ripsman, Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, and Steven E. Lobell, “Conclusion: The State of Neoclassical Realism,” 280-299
  18. Reprints of Chapter One:
  19. “Introduction” reprinted in: Foreign Policy Analysis (Sage Publications, 2011), eds. Walter Carlsnaes and Stefano Guzzini.
  20. “Introduction” reprinted in: Realism Reader (Routledge, 2011), eds. Colin Elman and Michael Jensen.
  21. Steven E. Lobell and Philip Mauceri, eds., Ethnic Conflict and International Politics: Explaining Diffusion and Escalation (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).
  22. Steven E. Lobell and Philip Mauceri, Chapter 1, “Diffusion and Escalation of Ethnic Conflict,” 1-10.
  23. “Regional Powers and the Politics behind WMD Proliferation,” in The Search for WMD: Non-Proliferation, Intelligence, and Pre-emption in the New Security Environment, edited by Graham F. Walker (March, 2006). Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, Dalhousie University, pp. 300-315.
  24. Arthur A. Stein and Steven E. Lobell, "Geostructuralism and International Politics: The End of the Cold War and the Regionalization of International Security," in Regional Orders: Building Security in a New World, edited by David Lake and Patrick Morgan (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997): 101-122.

NON-PEER REVIWED PUBLICATIONS

  1. “Can the United States and China Escape the Thucydides Trap?” China International Strategy Review (Beijing: Center for International and Strategic Studies, Peking University, 2015). In Chinese (June) and English (December).
  2. “Grand Strategy in an Era of Emerging Powers,” YNET (2014; translated into Hebrew).
  3. “Regional Economic Institutions and Conflict Mitigation,” Perspectives on Politics Vol. 12, No. 4 (2014).
  4. “The Political Economy of Grand Strategy,” Perspectives on Politics (2008).
  5. Steven E. Lobell and Brent Steele, “Was the United States Correct in Pressuring Britain and France to Dismantle their Colonies?” in History in Dispute 6: Cold War Series, edited by Dennis Showalter (Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press, 2000): 78-80.
  6. To the Editor, New York Times, April 22, 2013 (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/opinion/obama-in-the-mideast-sampling-the-reviews.html?_r=1&).
  7. “Obama Foreign Policy Reflects Ways of ‘70s, ‘30s,” Salt Lake Tribune, March 21, 2010.
  8. “The Bush Defense Strategy,” Salt Lake Tribune, September 26, 2004, p. A9.

Research Keywords

  • international relations

Presentations

  • “Power Project, Deterrence Strategies and Escalation Dynamics in an era of Challenging Near Peers, Rogue States, and Terrorist and Insurgent Organizations,” Argentine Council for International Relations, Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 19, 2023. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/24/2023.
  • Academic Exchange Retreat. Other, Accepted, 05/31/2022.
  • “Studying Security: A Multidisciplinary Perspective,” EISS Keynote Roundtable, Lisbon, Portugal, September 3, 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/03/2021.
  • Panel Chair, "International and Regional Security: The Causes of War and Peace," International Studies Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA (April 4-7, 2018). Conference Paper, Presented, 05/2018.

Research Groups

  • 2021 Minerva Virtual Policy Discussion Series, Research Professor. Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2021 Minerva Virtual Policy Discussion Series. 10/12/2021 - 10/28/2021.

Copyrights

  • Neoclassical Realism, the State and Foreign Policy. Cambridge University Press, 2009.