Alexander A. Cooley is Associate Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University and an Open Society Institute Global Fellow. He is also the coinvestigator for the Harriman Institute’s project on “US-Georgia Relations after the War.” Professor Cooley’s research examines how external actors have shaped the sovereignty and political development of the post-Communist states, with a focus on Central Asia and the Caucasus. Professor Cooley has authored numerous academic articles and three books: Logics of Hierarchy (Cornell University Press, 2005; co-winner of the AAASS 2006 Marshall Shulman Prize); Base Politics: Democratic Change and the US Military Overseas (Cornell University Press, 2008); and Contracting States: Sovereign Transfers in International Relations (Princeton University Press, 2009, co-authored with Hendrik Spruyt). As a Fellow with the Open Society Institute in 2009-2010, he is assessing the rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Central Asia and advising US, EU and NATO policymakers on developing a strategy for engaging the SCO.
In addition to his academic work, Professor Cooley has contributed policy commentaries to the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Current History and Foreign Affairs. He was a Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund in Brussels in 2005 and an International Security Fellow with the Smith Richardson Foundation in 2007. Cooley earned both his M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (1999) from Columbia University.
