Christian Reus-Smit

Chris Reus-Smit (born 1961) is Professor of International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence. He is a leading constructivist scholar in the field of international relations, and is arguably Australia's pre-eminent scholar in the field. Professor Reus-Smit's research focuses on the politics of International Ethics and institutions, and he has published widely on issues of American and Australian foreign policy, international law, global governance, multilateralism, human rights, and international relations theory. At present, he is co-editor (with Nicholas J. Wheeler) of the Cambridge Studies in International Relations book series, and (with Duncan Snidal) of the Oxford Handbook on International Relations.

Career

Reus-Smit was educated in Australia and the United States, receiving his B.A. and M.A. from La Trobe University in Melbourne. His M.A. dissertation concerned Australian foreign and security policy under during the Fraser era. After completing his M.A. in the mid-1980s, he taught at La Trobe University. During the mid-1990s, Reus-Smit undertook his PhD at Cornell University, along with other emerging constructivist scholars such as Audie Klotz and Richard Price. His doctoral dissertation was co-chaired by Peter J. Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, which was later published as The Moral Purpose of the State in 1999.

Reus-Smit returned to teach in Australia in 1995 and held...
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