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Bruce W. Jentleson, William Preston Few Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Affiliate of the Duke Center for International Development  

Office Location: 122 Rubenstein Hall, Box 90312, Durham, NC 27708-0312
Duke Box: 90312
Email Address: bwj7@duke.edu
Web Page: https://sites.duke.edu/bruce7jentleson/
Web Page: http://sanford.duke.edu/people/faculty/jentleson-bruce-w
Note: (On leave, Spring 2014)

Areas of Expertise

  • International
    • Conflict Prevention and Peacekeeping
    • Global Governance
    • Globalization
    • International Security
    • Middle East
    • U.S. Foreign Policy
    • United Nations and International Institutions

Education:
Ph.D., Cornell University, 1983
M.S., London School of Economics (United Kingdom), 1975
B.A., Cornell University, 1973

Current projects: US Policy in the New Middle East, 21st Century "Big Ideas", Genocide and Mass Atrocities Prevention

Teaching (Fall 2024):

  • Pubpol 877.01, National security strategy Synopsis
    Online on, Tu 06:00 PM-07:15 PM

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

  1. B.W. Jentleson. American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 5th edition forthcoming  2013.
  2. B.W. Jentleson and Steven Weber. The End of Arrogance: America in the Global Competition of Ideas. Harvard University Press, 2010.
  3. Jentleson, BW. "Global Governance in a Copernican World." Global Governance 17 (March, 2012).
  4. Jentleson, BW. "Accepting Limits: How to Adapt to a Copernican World." Democracy: A Journal of Ideas (Winter, 2012).
  5. Jentleson, BW. "Beware the Duck Test." Washington Quarterly 34.3 (Summer, 2011): 137-149. [doi]
  6. Jentleson, BW. "The Obama Administration and R2P: Progress, Problems and Prospects." Global Responsibility to Protect Winter 2012-13 (2012).
  7. B.W. Jentleson. "The Bi-Sectoralists." (2011-). Monthly column in Huffington Post, co-authored with Jay Pelosky.

Curriculum Vitae

Highlight:

Bruce W. Jentleson is William Preston Few Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Other positions include Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (also a 2022 Distinguished Fellow in residence) and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He was the longtime Co-Director and now Senior Advisor for the Bridging the Gap project promoting greater policy engagement among academics.

Career awards include the 2018 American Political Science Association (APSA) International Security Section Joseph J. Kruzel Award for Distinguished Public Service; the 2020 Duke University Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award; and the 1985 APSA Harold D. Lasswell Award for his doctoral dissertation. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

His most recent books are Economic Sanctions: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2022) and The Peacemakers: Leadership Lessons from 20th Century Statesmanship (W.W. Norton, 2018). Recent articles include “Beyond the Rhetoric: A Globally Credible U.S. Role for a ‘Rules-Based Order’,” The Washington Quarterly  (Fall 2023); “American Consensus on Ukraine Has Fractured” ForeignPolicy.com, March 29, 2023; “Who’s Winning the Sanctions War?” ForeignPolicy.com, August 18, 2022; “Refocusing U.S. Grand Strategy on Pandemic and Environmental Mass Destruction,” The Washington Quarterly (Fall 2020); and “Be Wary of China Threat Inflation,” ForeignPolicy.com (7/29/21). Op-eds and blogs have been published in The Washington Post, War on the Rocks, The National Interest, The Monkey Cage, Duck of Minerva, The Hill, The Conversation, Pass Blue, Raleigh News and Observer, and elsewhere.

He has served in a number of US foreign policy positions including Senior Advisor to the State Department Policy Planning Director (2009-11), a senior foreign policy advisor to the 2000 Gore presidential campaign, in the Clinton administration State Department (1993-94), and as a foreign policy aide to Senators Gore (1987-88) and Dave Durenberger (1978-79).

Other research appointments include the 2020 Desmond Ball Visiting Chair at Australia National University, College of Asia and the Pacific; 2015-16 Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the John W. Kluge Center, Library of Congress; Oxford University Visiting Senior Research Fellow (2007); Fulbright Senior Research Scholar, Madrid, Spain (2007); and Brookings Institution Guest Scholar (1988-90).

In 2009 he was Program Co-Chair for the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Political Science Quarterly, Washington Quarterly, Global R2P, and CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online). He is co-editor of the Oxford University Press Bridging the Gap book series.

He has lectured internationally including in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, the Netherlands, Qatar, Spain, South Korea, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. He is often quoted in the press and has appeared on such shows as the PBS News Hour, BBC, Al Jazeera, al Hurra, China Radio International, and NPR, as well as regional media in the North Carolina Research Triangle.

Bio/Profile
Bruce Jentleson is Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University, where he previously served as Director of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy (now the Sanford School of Public Policy). He is a leading scholar of American foreign policy and has served in a number of U.S. policy and political positions. In 2014 he is on leave from Duke as a Distinguished Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Jentleson has published numerous books including American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century (5th edition, W.W. Norton, 2013); The End of Arrogance: America in the Global Competition of Ideas, co-authored with Steven Weber (Harvard University Press, 2010); and With Friends Like These: Reagan, Bush and Saddam, 1982-1990 (W.W. Norton, 1994). His current book (working title) is Profiles in Statesmanship: Seeking a Better World. He also has published articles in numerous academic and policy journals, and written for leading online sites such as ForeignPolicy.com and Huffington Post.

From 2009 to 2011 he was Senior Advisor to the U.S. State Department Policy Planning Director. In 2012 he served on the Obama 2012 campaign National Security Advisory Steering Committee. He also served as a senior foreign policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore in his 2000 presidential campaign, in the Clinton administration State Department (1993-94), and as a foreign policy aide to Senators Gore (1987-88) and Dave Durenberger (1978-79). He also has served on a number of policy commissions, most recently the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Working Group co-chaired by Madeleine Albright (2011-13).

He has held research appointments at the Brookings Institution, U.S. Institute of Peace, Oxford University, International Institute for Strategic Studies (London), Australia National University, and as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Spain. He has served as a consultant to the Carnegie Commission for Preventing Deadly Conflict, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Assembly, the Atlantic Council, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has lectured internationally, including in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, the Netherlands, Qatar, Spain, South Korea, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. He is often quoted in the press and has appeared on such shows as the Lehrer News Hour, BBC, Al Jazeera, al Hurra, China Radio International, and NPR.

In 2009, Jentleson was the program co-chair for the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. He is a co-founder of the Bridging the Gap project promoting greater policy relevance among academics. He serves on the boards of directors of the Close Up Foundation and the National Security Network, board of trustees of the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, and the editorial boards of Political Science Quarterly, Washington Quarterly, Global Responsibility to Protect, and CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online).

He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University, and was recipient of the American Political Science Association’s Harold D. Lasswell Award for his doctoral dissertation. He earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell, including study at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia.

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

  • Danielle Lupton  
  • Seth Cantey  
  • Christopher Whytock  

Bruce W. Jentleson