Dr. Francis J. Gavin, Director The Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs

Francis Gavin earned his BA at the University of Chicago in political science, a MSt. from Oxford in modern European history, and a PhD in history from the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, he was the first Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear Security Policy Studies at MIT and the Tom Slick Professor of International Affairs and the Director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas.

He has been a National Security Fellow at the Olin Institute, Harvard University, an International Security Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, a Donald Harrington Faculty Fellow at the University of Texas, a Senior Research Fellow at the Nobel Institute, Oslo, Norway, a Public Policy School at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and the Ernest May Senior Visiting Professor in Applied History, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. From 2005 until 2010, he directed The American Assembly’s multiyear, national initiative, The Next Generation Project: U.S. Global Policy and the Future of International Institutions. Gavin is the Co-Founder and Co-Director and Principal Investigator, with James Steinberg, Carnegie International Policy Scholars Consortium and Network, and the Founder and Director of the Nuclear Studies Research Initiative. He is a Research Associate at the Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Senior Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security, University of Texas, a Distinguished Scholar, Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, University of Texas, and a Senior Advisor, Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC. He was a Non-Resident Senior Advisor, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (2019-2021). Gavin serves on the CIA Historical Panel.

Gavin was the Managing Editor for the International Security Studies Forum (2015-2018), serves on the Board of Editors for Journal of Security Studies and Security Studies, is a Contributing Editor to War on the Rocks, and is the founding Chair of the Board of Editors for the Texas National Security Journal.

Gavin’s writings include Gold, Dollars, and Power: The Politics of International Monetary Relations, 1958-1971 (University of North Carolina Press); Nuclear Statecraft: History and Strategy in America’s Atomic Age (Cornell University Press) and Nuclear Weapons and American Grand Strategy (Brookings Institution Press), which was named a 2020 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. His book, Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy, is forthcoming.