Michael Butler
Associate Professor, Political Science
Scholarly Interests
security studies; conflict management and resolution; foreign policy
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Michael J. Butler is an Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science. In 2014-15, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of International Studies, University of Wrocław. Butler specializes in international security, conflict management and resolution, and foreign policy analysis with a regional focus on Central and Eastern Europe. He is the author, co-author, or editor of six books including Reconstructing the Responsibility to Protect: From Humanitarian Intervention to Human Security (forthcoming), Global Politics (2023), Securitization Revisited: Contemporary Applications and Insights (2019), Selling a ‘Just’ War: Framing, Legitimacy, and U.S. Military Intervention (2012); and International Conflict Management (2009). His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Global Security Studies, Global Policy, International Studies Review, International Studies Perspectives, International Negotiation, the Canadian Journal of Political Science, International Journal of Conflict Management, Global Change, Peace, and Security, and Global Responsibility to Protect.
Butler currently enjoys several international research appointments. He is a member of the Government of Sweden's Folke Bernadotte Academy International Research Working Group on Dialogue, Peace Mediation, and Peace Processes, a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto's Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, and an affiliate with the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study while also providing consultation on foreign affairs to the governments of Switzerland and the United Kingdom. He has served as an elected member of the Governing Council of the International Studies Association-Northeast since 2006, and as co-editor of the International Studies Intensives book series (Routledge) since 2016. Past service to the profession includes membership on the editorial boards of the scholarly journals International Studies Review, Simulation & Gaming, and International Studies Perspectives. His commentary on international affairs has appeared in numerous media outlets including ABC News, CNN, Reuters, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, USA Today, Voice of America, the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), Correio Braziliense (Brazil), CBC (Canada), Expresso (Portugal), Business Times (Singapore), and the Korea Times (South Korea).Degrees
- Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Connecticut, 2004
- M.S. in Public Policy, University of Maryland, 1996
- B.A. in Political Science, University of Connecticut, 1994
Affiliated Department(s)
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Scholarly and Creative Works
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Beyond ‘Saving Strangers': Revisiting R2P as an Accountability Mechanism
Published in Global Responsibility to Protect
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2024
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Reconstructing the Responsibility to Protect: From Humanitarian Intervention to Human Security (forthcoming)
Global Politics and the Responsibility to Protect
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2024
Routledge
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Ripeness Obscured: Inductive Lessons from Türkiye’s (Transactional) Mediation in the Russia-Ukraine War
Published in International Journal of Conflict Management
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2023
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Global Politics: Applying Theory to a Complex World (2nd ed.)
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2023
Oxford University Press
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Ukraine’s Information War is Winning Hearts and Minds in the West
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2022
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Global Politics: Applying Theory to a Complex World
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2020
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ISBN #9780190655532
Oxford University Press
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Published by Cambridge University Press
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2019
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Separating from an Elephant: The Strategic Value of R2P to Canadian Foreign Policy
Published in Canadian Journal on the Responsibility to Protect
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2019
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Vol. 1
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Issue #1
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Guest Editor: Negotiation and Mediation: Provision and Success in the Hardest Cases (special issue)
October
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2019
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Vol. 24
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Issue #3
Brill
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Leiden
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Adaptive Peacemaking in Protracted Conflicts: IGAD Mediation in the Second Sudanese Civil War
Published in Global Policy
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2019
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Vol. 10
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Issue #2
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Learning from Success and Failure
Published in International Negotiation
Fall
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2019
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Vol. 24
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Issue #3
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Negotiation and Mediation in the Hard(est) Cases
Published in International Negotiation
Fall
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2019
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Vol. 24
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Issue #3
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Securitization Revisited: Contemporary Applications and Insights
Routledge Critical Security Studies
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2019
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ISBN #9780367150372
Routledge
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Context, Process, and Structure: Correlates of Conflict Management in Foreign Policy Crisis
Published in Journal of Global Security Studies
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2018
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Vol. 3
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Issue #2
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Published by Lynne Rienner
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2013
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Ten Years After: (Re) Assessing Neo-Trusteeship and UN Statebuilding in Timor-Leste
Published in International Studies Perspectives
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2012
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Vol. 13
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Issue #1
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Selling a ‘Just War’: Framing, Legitimacy, and US Military Intervention
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2012
Palgrave Macmillan
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The State of Experimental Research in IR: An Analytical Survey
Published in International Studies Review
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2010
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Vol. 12
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Issue #2
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International Conflict Management
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2009
Routledge
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U.S. Military Intervention 1945-1994: An Empirical Inquiry in Just War Theory
Published in Journal of Conflict Resolution
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Vol. 47
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Issue #2
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Crisis Bargaining and Third-Party Mediation: Bridging the Gap
Published in International Negotiation
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Vol. 12
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Issue #2
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Searching for an Exit: The Effects of Context, Process, and Structure on Crisis Negotiation
Published in International Negotiation
Fall
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Vol. 24
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Issue #3
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Awards & Grants
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The ‘Macedonia Question’ Revisited: Community Perspectives on Political Identity and Cooperation between North Macedonia and Greece
National Council for Eurasian and Eastern European Research
Mar. 4, 2024 - Sep. 1, 2025
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“Change in the Higher Education Landscape: Intercultural Networks in Innovative Learning”
International Studies Association
Jan. 1, 2018 - Jun. 30, 2018
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“Redefining Security, Revisited"
Leir Foundation
Mar. 1, 2017 - Jun. 18, 2017
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Studies and Research in Poland Award
Kosciuszko Foundation/Polish Ministry of National Education
Aug. 30, 2014 - Feb. 15, 2015
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‘Shunning Strangers: R2P and Humanitarian Intervention in Crisis.'
Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation
Sep. 1, 2014 - Feb. 15, 2015
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‘Research Design and Inquiry in International Relations'
European Union (European Commission)
Dec. 1, 2014 - Jan. 30, 2015
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Fulbright Scholar
Fulbright Commission
2014
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Clark University Outstanding Teacher
Clark University
2011
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Clark University Outstanding Teacher
Clark University
2021
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Clark University Outstanding Faculty Adviser
Clark University
2021
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Clark University Outstanding Faculty Adviser
Clark University
2020
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Clark University Outstanding Faculty Adviser
Clark University
2013
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Clark University Outstanding Faculty Adviser
Clark University
2011
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Hodgkins Junior Faculty Research Award
Clark University
2018
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Hodgkins Junior Faculty Research Award
Clark University
2010
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Oliver and Dorothy Hayden Junior Faculty Fellowship
Clark University
2014
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Member, Folke Bernadotte Academy International Research Working Group on Dialogue, Peace Mediation, and Peace Processes
Folke Bernadotte Academy, Government of Sweden
2023
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Senior Fellow, Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (CCR2P)
Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
2014
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