Knowledge Bank

Robert Pape is professor of political science at the University of Chicago. His current work focuses on American grand strategy, causes and solutions to suicide terrorism, the logic of soft balancing in a unipolar world, and the limits and advantages of precision air power. He is the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Random House, 2005) and Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (Cornell, 1996). Pape's commentary on international security policy has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists as well as on Nightline, ABC News, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, CNN International, and National Public Radio. Before coming to Chicago in 1999, he taught international relations at Dartmouth College for five years. He taught air power strategy for the USAF's School of Advanced Airpower Studies for three years.