Associate Professor

Office: 1718A HW
Phone: 212-772-5503
Email:zshirkey@hunter.cuny.edu

C.V.

Office Hours

Google Scholar Page

Areas of Specialization:

• International Relations
• Causes and Termination of War
• Intervention
• Terrorism and Counter-terrorism

Courses (Undergraduate):

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

Courses (Graduate):

• PSC 76000: Basic Concepts and Theories of International Relations

Education:
Ph.D. Columbia University, 2006
M.Phil Columbia University, 2003
M.A. Columbia University, 2001
B.A. University of Michigan, 1999

Publications:

Books:

• Joining the Fray: Military Intervention in Civil Wars. 2012. (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate).
• Is This a Private Fight or Can Anybody Join? The Spread of Interstate War. 2009. (Aldershot, UK:  Ashgate).

Articles:

• "When and How Many: The Effects of Third Party Joining on Casualties and Duration in Interstate Wars" 2012. Journal of Peace Research 49(2): 321-334.
• 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:

• "No: International organizations are limited in their ability to combat terrorism", 2013. In Debating Terrorism and Counterterrorism, 2nd Ed., Stuart Gottlieb ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press. pp. 279-291.
• “No:  The UN is limited in its ability to play a role,” 2009. In Debating Terrorism and Counterterrorism, Stuart Gottlieb, ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press. pp. 275–287.

Book Reviews and Online Publications:

• "Commitment Problems as a Cause of War Severity", 2014. International Studies Review 16(1): 136-38.
• "A Better Way To Combat Terrorism", 2014. The National Interest. 21 August.
• "America Can't Escape the Middle East", 2013. The National Interest. 29 July.
• Review Article: “Review of Dan Reiter’s How Wars End,” 2012. H-Diplo/ISSF Roundtable Reviews 3(19): 15–19.
• Shirkey, Zachary C., and Alex Weisiger, 2007. “An Annotated Bibliography for the Correlates of War Interstate Wars,” Availible on the Correlates of War Website.

Working Projects:

• Walking the Balance Beam: State Responses to Threat in the Face of Uncertainty
• Joining by Number: Military Intervention in Civil Wars
• Uncertainty and War Duration
• Commitment Problems, War Initiation, and the Spread of Interstate War

Data:

• Unexpected Events in Interstate Wars Dataset
  
  If you use this data, please add the following citation to your reference list:
  
  Shirkey, Zachary. 2009. Is This a Private Fight or Can Anybody Join? The Spread of Interstate War (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate).