Paul Poast is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago, where he also serves as Deputy Dean for Doctoral Education and directs the Summer Institute for Social Research Methods. He’s a nonresident senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a foreign affairs columnist for World Politics Review. His research covers international security, alliance politics, and the political economy of warfare, and he is the author of books such as The Economics of War, Organizing Democracy, Arguing About Alliances, and Wheat at War.