William Rose, professor of Government, Connecticut College

Contact Bill Rose

Education
B.A., B.S., University of Washington; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

"When the Cold War ended, I wanted to help college students understand and come to grips with the foreign policy choices facing the United States - so I conceived and co-authored a college text." - William M. Rose

"This collection provides a splendid introduction to the foreign policy choices of the 21st century. . . "
- Gary Huffbauer, Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Economics, commenting on The Role of the United States in a Changing World: Choices for the 21st Century, by William M. Rose.

"A marvelously conceived approach to drive home the fact that a new era demands new ways for thinking about American foreign policy?", added Ernst Haas, Robson Research Professor of Government at the University of California, Berkeley.

William M. Rose
Professor of Government
Chair of Government Department


Joined Connecticut College: 1983

Specialization:
  • International politics, especially issues of war and peace
  • International terrorism: causes, consequences, and policy implications
  • Ethnic conflict, the security dilemma, and prospects for civil war and peace
  • Post-Cold War and post-9/11 challenges for U.S. foreign policy

Professor Rose teaches courses on international relations, U.S. foreign policy, international terrorism, civil wars, and United Nations peacekeeping.

He was named a 2006-07 Academic Fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The fellowship began with a late spring 2006 trip to Israel. Along with 43 other professors, he attended lectures on terrorism at Tel Aviv University and went on field trips for "hands-on" exploration of related issues. The trip help provide data for his major research project, "Impact of the Balance of Threat on State Responses to International Terrorism: The Case of Israel 1987-2004." Along with his co-author, Rysia Murphy (class of '07), he will discuss the findings at a campus presentation on April 11, 2007 (1941 Room in the Student Center at Crozier-Williams ("Cro"), at a professional conference on April 28, and May 2 during the College's Alumni Reunion 2007.  

During the Cold War, he specialized in U.S.-Soviet arms control negotiations. He published U.S. Unilateral Arms Control Initiatives: When Do They Work?, along with journal articles. Rose and Murphy are publishing a 2000-word letter in the journal International Security letter that features their research into the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings. It is directed toward an article by Max Abrahms in the Fall 2006 issue. While agreeing with Abrahms' thesis that terrorism rarely achieves its political objectives, their case study constitutes an exception to Abrahms' claim that terrorist groups targeting primarily civilians never achieve their political aims. Their letter and Abrahms' reply will appear in the summer or fall 2007 issue of International Security. A much longer version of their letter is available here: rose-murphy_long_IS_letter.pdf.

When the Cold War ended, Rose wanted to help college students understand and come to grips with the foreign policy choices facing the United States. He conceived of and co-authored a college text entitled The Role of the United States in a Changing World: Choices for the 21st Century, published by the Center for Foreign Policy Development at Brown University, where he is a visiting research associate.

His research then turned to ethnic conflict and civil wars. He has published lead articles in the journals Security Studies (Summer 2000) and Civil Wars (Fall 2002).

Interested in effective teaching methods, Rose co-authored "Teaching About the Future of U.S.-Soviet Relations," which appeared in International Studies Notes and "The Professor's Dream: Getting Students to Talk and Read Intelligently," co-authored with Andrew Green, which appeared in PS: Political Science & Politics.

As a strong supporter of undergraduate research, Rose has co-authored papers with Connecticut College students. Between 2002-05, for example, he worked with five students who converted outstanding honors theses or independent studies into papers for Annual Meetings of the International Studies Association. The students presented all five papers on panels typically composed of professors and graduate students.

Rose has been chair of the Department of Government since 2002, and he founded and directs the International Relations major. He has served on various college committees, including the Educational Planning Committee, the Academic and Administrative Procedures Committee, and the Study Away Committee.

Rose is a member of the International Studies Association and the Sudan Studies Association, In the past, he was a consultant to Brown University's Choices for the 21st Century Education Project, a Board Member of the Southeast Connecticut Committee on Foreign Relations, an adjunct research fellow at Harvard's Center for Science and International Affairs. and was on the Board of Directors of OPTIONS, a national organization that was dedicated to educating the public about security alternatives in the nuclear age.

View the government department site.

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