People

Robert Powell is Robson Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley and previously taught at the University of Michigan and Harvard. He specializes in the use of game theory to study international conflict and political conflict more generally. He is the author of Nuclear Deterrence Theory: The Search for Credibility (Cambridge University Press, 1990); In the Shadow of Power: States and Strategies in International Politics (Princeton University Press, 1999); "Nuclear Deterrence Theory, Nuclear Proliferation, and National Missile Defense" (International Security, 2003); and "The Inefficient Use of Power: Costly Conflict with Complete Information" (American Political Science Review, 2004). More recently he has focused on the problem of allocating defensive resources against strategic attackers like terrorist groups, and has written "Defending Against Terrorist Attacks with Limited Resources" (American Political Science Review, 2007). He holds a B.S. in mathematics from Harvey Mudd College; an M.Phil in international relations from Cambridge University; and a Ph.D. in economics from UC Berkeley. He has been a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004).