Rate My Professor Paul Musgrave

Paul Musgrave served as an associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 2015 to 2024, holding appointments in the Department of Political Science and Legal Studies. He earned a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University in 2014 with a dissertation titled “Divided States: How Bargaining at Home Affects U.S. Foreign Policy,” an M.A. in Politics from University College Dublin in 2005 as a George Mitchell Scholar, and a B.A. in Political Science and History from Indiana University Bloomington in 2004. Prior to UMass Amherst, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Dickinson College from 2014 to 2015, Special Assistant to the Director at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library from 2006 to 2009, and Assistant Editor at Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2006.

Musgrave's research interests center on U.S. foreign policy, the influence of domestic institutions and political parties on foreign policy, international relations theory, hierarchy in international politics, and the resource curse. His scholarship has appeared in premier journals including International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, International Theory, and PS: Political Science & Politics. Prominent publications include “Defending Hierarchy from the Moon to the Indian Ocean: Symbolic Capital and Political Dominance in Early Modern China and the Cold War” (2018, with Daniel H. Nexon), “Oil, Autocratic Survival, and the Gendered Resource Curse: When Inefficient Policy is Politically Expedient” (2016, with Yu-Ming Liou), “Beyond Anarchy: Logics of Political Organization, Hierarchy, and International Structure” (2018), “Synthetic Experiences: How Popular Culture Matters for Images of International Relations” (2017), and “Hitting Back or Holding Back in Cyberspace: Experimental Evidence of Public Support for Cyber Offensives” (2022, with Marcelo M. Leal). He has also published op-eds in The Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog on topics such as Russian election interference and Saudi women's rights reforms. At UMass Amherst, Musgrave received tenure from the Board of Trustees in 2023, was named a 2019–20 Spotlight Scholar for exploring partisanship's impacts, and served as the 2019–2020 APSA Congressional Fellow. Additional honors include the Frederick Hartmann Award (2012), Jill Hopper Memorial Fellowship (2012–2013), and Theodore C. Sorensen Research Fellowship (2011). In 2024, he joined Georgetown University in Qatar as Associate Professor of Government.