Peter Harris

  • Associate Professor
  • Associate Chair
  • DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
Photo of Peter Harris

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Institutional Affiliation 

Colorado State University

Education

  • PhD, University of Texas at Austin
  • MSc, SOAS University of London
  • MA, University of Edinburgh

Regional and Thematic Interests

  • International Relations
  • US Foreign Policy
  • International Security

Profile

Peter Harris is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University, where his teaching and research focus on international security, US and comparative foreign policy, International Relations theory, and qualitative research methods. He is currently the Associate Chair of the Department of Political Science.

Peter’s first book was co-authored with Jared McKinney, and is called Deterrence Gap: Avoiding War in the Taiwan Strait. His second book is called Why America Can't Retrench (And How It Might). He has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Asian Security, International Affairs, Marine Policy, Parameters, Political Science Quarterly, and Review of International Studies. He has won two “best article” awards from scholarly journals. His research has been funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charles Koch Foundation, and Smith Richardson Foundation.

Peter is committed to public outreach. He has published more than 250 articles and op-eds in popular outlets such as ChinaFile, The Diplomat, National Interest, Survival, War on the Rocks, and World Politics Review. He has submitted evidence to the UK Parliament, briefed an incoming ambassador, facilitated trainings on policy and media engagement for other academics, recorded more half a dozen podcasts, and been interviewed for local, national, and international media. Peter is a non-resident fellow with Defense Priorities, a DC-based think tank.

Peter is from Wigan in the northwest of England and holds degrees from the University of Edinburgh, SOAS University of London, and the University of Texas at Austin. He is a strong advocate for study-abroad opportunities, having spent time at the University of British Columbia and University of Virginia as an undergraduate.

In Spring 2025, Peter was the CY Tung Scholar on voyage #135 of Semester at Sea.

Selected Publication

China in British Politics: Western Unexceptionalism in the Shadow of China’s Rise. The Chinese Journal of International Politics 10, no. 3 (Autumn 2017): 241-267.

America’s Other Guantánamo: British Foreign Policy and the U.S. Base on Diego Garcia. The Political Quarterly 86, no. 4 (October-December 2015): 507-514. 

Why Law and Politics Matter for Marine Conservation: The Case of the Chagos Marine Protected Area. Environmental Policy and Law 45, no. 5 (September 2015): 204-207.

The Imminent US Strategic Adjustment to China. The Chinese Journal of International Politics 8, no. 3 (Autumn 2015): 219-250.

Britannia Rules the Waves? The Law of the Sea, the British Indian Ocean Territory, and the Chagos Islanders’ Right to Return. Anthropology Today 31, no. 3 (June 2015): 18-19.

Militarism in Environmental Disguise: The Greenwashing of an Overseas Military Base. International Political Sociology 9, no. 1 (March 2015): 19-36.                                                                                                                                   

Problems with Power-Transition Theory: Beyond the Vanishing Disparities Thesis. Asian Security 10, no. 3 (December 2014): 241-259.

Environmental Protection as International Security: Conserving the Pentagon’s Island Bases in the Asia-Pacific. International Journal 69, no. 3 (September 2014): 377-393.

Fortress, Safe Haven or Home? The Chagos MPA in Political Context. Marine Policy 46 (May 2014): 19-21.

A Political Trilemma? International Security, Environmental Protection and Human Rights in the British Indian Ocean Territory. International Politics 51, no. 1 (January 2014): 87-100.

Decolonising the Special Relationship: Diego Garcia, the Chagossians and Anglo-American Relations. Review of International Studies 39, no. 3 (July 2013): 707-727.

Dead End or Crossroads? The Chagossians Fail in Strasbourg. Anthropology Today 29, no. 3 (June 2013): 26.

Not Just a Military Base: Reframing Diego Garcia and the Chagos Islands. African Affairs 110, no. 440 (July 2011): 491-499.