Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Facebook Twitter YouTube Trending Globally Podcast Instagram Tumblr Email list
Peter Andreas

Peter Andreas

peter_andreas@brown.edu
+1 401 863 9839
111 Thayer Street, Room 312

Downloadable CV

Peter Andreas

John Hay Professor of International Studies and Political Science

Biography

Peter Andreas is the John Hay Professor of International Studies. He joined the Institute in the fall of 2001, and holds a joint appointment with the Department of Political Science. Previously, Andreas was an academy scholar at Harvard University, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, and an SSRC-MacArthur Foundation Fellow on International Peace and Security. He holds an MA and PhD in government from Cornell University and a BA in political science from Swarthmore College.

Andreas is the author, co-author, or co-editor of eleven books. These include Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America (Oxford University Press, 2013, selected by Amazon and by Foreign Affairs as one of the best books of the year), Blue Helmets and Black Markets: The Business of Survival in the Siege of Sarajevo (Cornell University Press, 2008); Policing the Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations (Oxford University Press, 2006); and Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide (Cornell University Press, 2000, 2nd ed 2009, 3rd ed 2021). He has also written a political memoir, Rebel Mother: My Childhood Chasing the Revolution (Simon & Schuster, 2017, selected by Foreign Affairs as a best book of the year). His most recent book, Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs (Oxford University Press, 2020), explores the relationship between warfare and mind altering substances, from ancient times to the present. 

Andreas has also written for a wide range of scholarly and policy publications, including International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, Harper's, Slate, Time Magazine, and The Nation. Other writings include congressional testimonies and op-eds in major newspapers, such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and The Guardian.

Research

Andreas' research bridges the study of security, political economy, and transnational crime. He is especially interested in the clandestine dimensions of globalization, involving illicit cross-border flows of people, goods, money and information. He traces the interaction between states and illicit flows across time and place, focusing particularly on the practice and politics of government policing efforts along and across borders.

Current Projects

Illicit Globalization

Publications

Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs, Oxford University Press, 2020

"Crime, Violence, and Illicit Economies in Regional and Global Perspective," Perspectives on Politics (Vol. 17, No. 2, 2019)

"Drugs and War: What is the Relationship?" Annual Review of Political Science (2019)

"Border Collision" (with N. Brigden), in Katzenstein and Seybert, eds. Protean Power: Exploring the Unexpected in World Politics, Cambridge University Press, 2018

Rebel Mother: My Childhood Chasing the Revolution, Simon & Schuster, 2017

Teaching

Politics of the Illicit Global Economy

Drug War Politics

Contemporary Security Issues

Contraband Capitalism

News|Recent News

All News

Events

All Events