Don Casler

Welcome! I am an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a faculty affiliate at the Program on Arms Control & Domestic and International Security. During the 2022-23 academic year, I was a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Previously, I was a Hans J. Morgenthau Fellow at the University of Notre Dame's International Security Center. I received my Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 2022.

I research topics at the nexus of international security and international political economy, with a particular focus on political psychology, organizational theory, and the use of historical and experimental methods. My book project, The Bureaucratic Battlefield: Credibility and Crisis Diplomacy, uses an organizational lens to examine when and why foreign policy bureaucrats prefer the use of force during crises, with particular focus on how diplomatic and military officials understand coercive credibility. This research has been funded by both the Smith Richardson and Charles Koch Foundations. It also received the 2023 Kenneth N. Waltz Dissertation Award from the American Political Science Association and the 2023 Alexander George Award from the International Studies Association.

My other research has been published or is forthcoming in International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Politics, Security Studies, and World Politics. My ongoing projects can be found under the "Research" tab.

I invite you to follow me on Twitter @Don_Casler. You can also reach me at dcasler [at] illinois [dot] edu.