Robert Owen Keohane is a preeminent scholar who has fundamentally reshaped the field of international relations through his theoretical innovations and rigorous intellectual contributions. He currently holds the position of Professor Emeritus of International Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where he served on the faculty from 2005 until his retirement in 2017. After graduating with great distinction from Shimer College in 1961, he earned his PhD in political science from Harvard University in 1966, establishing the foundation for a remarkable academic career that spanned over five decades. His distinguished teaching career included professorships at Swarthmore College, Stanford University, Brandeis University, Harvard University, and Duke University before joining Princeton, where he continued to advance theoretical frameworks in international relations.
Keohane revolutionized international relations theory with his seminal work After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy (1984), which established him as the leading theorist of neoliberal institutionalism and demonstrated how international cooperation could persist without a hegemonic power. Together with Joseph Nye, he pioneered the concept of complex interdependence and co-authored the influential Power and Interdependence (1977), fundamentally reshaping the study of international political economy and challenging political realism's dominance in the field. His theoretical framework provided the foundation for understanding how international institutions facilitate cooperation among states pursuing self-interest, creating a paradigm shift in how scholars analyze global governance. Keohane's scholarship has been extraordinarily influential, with his works receiving extensive citations across political science and international relations, establishing him as one of the most frequently cited authors on college syllabi for political science courses according to the Open Syllabus Project.
Throughout his distinguished career, Keohane has served in significant leadership roles including editor of the prestigious journal International Organization and president of both the International Studies Association and the American Political Science Association, shaping scholarly discourse in his field. He has received numerous prestigious honors including the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order (1989), the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science (2005), and the Balzan Prize for International Relations (2016), recognizing his transformative contributions to political science. As a dedicated mentor and intellectual leader, he has influenced generations of scholars who now hold prominent positions across academia and policy institutions worldwide, extending his impact beyond his own publications. Even in his emeritus status, Keohane continues to publish scholarly work and contribute to ongoing debates about global governance in an increasingly complex international system, demonstrating the enduring relevance of his theoretical frameworks for understanding cooperation in a partially globalized world.
