Professor
Department Chair

Office: 1724A HW
Phone: 212-772-5503
Email:zshirkey@hunter.cuny.edu

C.V.

Google Scholar Page

Education:

Ph.D. Columbia University, 2006
B.A. University of Michigan, 1999

Areas of Specialization:
International Relations
Foreign Policy
Military Intervention
War Duration
Terrorism and Counterterrorism

Courses:

Undergraduate:
POLSC 274: American Foreign Policy
POLSC 283: Terrorism
POLSC 375: International Law
POLSC 382: Causes of War
POLSC 384: Comparative Foreign Policy
POLSC 493: Conducting and Presenting Political Science Research

Graduate:
PSC 76000: Basic Concepts and Theories of International Relations
PSC 86207: Causes of War

Selected Publications:

A full list of publications, data, and media appearances can be found here.

Some of the following works are available, open access, in the CUNY Academic Works repository and on ResearchGate.

Books:

• American Dove: US Foreign Policy and the Failure of Force. 2020. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press).
• Savic, Ivan and Zachary C. Shirkey. 2017. Uncertainty, Threat, and International Security: Implications for Southeast Asia. (London: Routledge). (available open access).
• Joining the Fray: Military Intervention in Civil Wars. 2012. (Aldershot: Ashgate).
• Is This a Private Fight or Can Anybody Join? The Spread of Interstate War. 2009. (Aldershot:  Ashgate).

Articles:

• "Courts and State-Building: The Welsh Marcher Lordships and the Somali Union of Islamic Courts," Forthcoming. Polity.
• "Which Wars Spread? Commitment Problems and Military Intervention," 2020. Conflict Management and Peace Science 37(2): 133–51.
• "Challenges to the Study of Long Wars," 2018. Polity. 50(2): 225–37.
• Lee, Michael and Zachary C. Shirkey. 2017. "Going Beyond the Existing Consensus: The Use of Games in International Relations Education," PS: Political Science & Politics 50(2): 571–5.
• "Joining By Number: Military Intervention in Civil Wars," 2016. Civil Wars 18(4): 417–38.
• "Uncertainty and War Duration," 2016. International Studies Review 18(2): 244–67.
• "When and How Many: The Effects of Third Party Joining on Casualties and Duration in Interstate Wars," 2012. Journal of Peace Research 49(2): 321–34.
• Savic, Ivan, and Zachary C. Shirkey. 2009. “Trust in the Balance: The Role of Commitment Problems in Shaping External Balancing Behavior,” Journal of Theoretical Politics 21(4): 483–507.

Book Chapters:

• "Military Intervention in Interstate and Civil Wars: A Unified Interpretation,” 2018. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Empirical International Relations Theory, William R. Thompson (ed.)., v.2., Oxford: Oxford University Press: 534–49.
• "No: International organizations are limited in their ability to combat terrorism," 2014. In Debating Terrorism and Counterterrorism, 2nd Ed., Stuart Gottlieb (ed.). Washington: CQ Press: 279–91.
• “No:  The UN is limited in its ability to play a role,” 2009. In Debating Terrorism and Counterterrorism, 1st Ed., Stuart Gottlieb, (ed.). Washington: CQ Press: 275–87.

Media:

• American Dove Book Talk with Gideon Rose at the Roosevelt House, 19 November 2020.
• Duck of Minerva  6+1 Questions on American Dove, 22 July 2021.