Rate My Professor Michael McKoy

Michael McKoy, Ph.D., is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at Wheaton College, where he joined the faculty in 2014 and was promoted to associate professor in 2021. He also serves as Director of the Peace and Conflict Studies program. A native of East Orange, New Jersey, McKoy received his B.A. in Political Science and History from Duke University in 2002, followed by an M.A. in Politics from Princeton University in 2008 and a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University in 2012, with his dissertation exploring the strategic choices of interstate conflict and foreign-imposed regime change. He teaches courses on international politics, peace and conflict, U.S. foreign policy, and Middle East topics.

McKoy's research focuses on the international politics of revolutions, revolutionary politics, Middle East international politics, and the international political thought of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His publications include "Backing Out or Backing In? Consistency and Commitment in Audience Costs Theory," co-authored with Jack S. Levy, Paul Poast, and Geoffrey P.R. Wallace in the American Journal of Political Science (2015); "The Patron’s Dilemma: The Dynamics of Foreign-Supported Democratization," with Michael K. Miller in the Journal of Conflict Resolution (2012); "Constructing a ‘Democratic’ Peace: Allied Peacebuilding Strategy in Germany and Japan" in Democracy and Security (2021); "Neoconservatism: A Death Prematurely Reported?" in Rethinking Security in the Twenty-First Century (2017); and "Bargaining Theory and Rationalist Explanations for the Iraq War," with David A. Lake in International Security (2011). His work has been cited more than 200 times. McKoy has received the Faculty Fellow award from the America in the World Consortium (2021, including a $5,000 research grant), the Rodney K. Sisco Diversity Students’ Choice Award from Wheaton College (2021), the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies Dissertation Writing Fellowship (2011-2012), the Henry and Lynde Bradley Foundation Fellowship (2010-2012), and the Patrice Y. Johnson '80 Memorial Service Award from the Association of Black Princeton Alumni (2012).