Joshua Schwartz

Welcome! I am currently an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Carnegie Mellon University. My research focuses on questions related to the spread of military technology around the world, public support for the use of force and technology, and the effectiveness of force and technology on the battlefield and more broadly in international relations. Do armed drones increase or decrease terrorism, and what explains drone proliferation? What factors impact support for the use of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear or chemical weapons? What effect will greater female leadership around the world have on international politics? Should countries go to war in order to bolster their reputations for resolve? These are the kinds of questions my research addresses.

My academic research has been published or is forthcoming in journals like International Organization, International Security, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and International Studies Quarterly. You can also find my policy commentary in outlets like he Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Lawfare, and War on the Rocks.

Before joining CMU I received my PhD in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022, was a Grand Strategy Predoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, a Grand Strategy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Hans J. Morgenthau Fellow at the University of Notre Dame, and a Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Emerging Scholar. I earned a BA summa cum laude in Economics and Political Science from the George Washington University in 2016, and interned with the U.S. State Department and U.S. Senate.