Michael J. Butler is Professor of International Relations and Chair of the Department of Political Science. In 2014-15, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of International Studies, University of Wrocław. Butler specializes in international security, conflict management and resolution, and foreign policy analysis. He is the author, co-author, or editor of six books including Reconstructing the Responsibility to Protect: From Humanitarian Intervention to Human Security (2024), Global Politics (2023), Securitization Revisited: Contemporary Applications and Insights (2019), Selling a ‘Just’ War: Framing, Legitimacy, and U.S. Military Intervention (2012); and International Conflict Management (2009). His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Global Security Studies, Global Policy, International Studies Review, International Studies Perspectives, International Negotiation, the Canadian Journal of Political Science, International Journal of Conflict Management, Global Change, Peace, and Security, and Global Responsibility to Protect.
Butler currently enjoys several international research appointments. He is a member of the Government of Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy International Research Working Group on Dialogue, Peace Mediation, and Peace Processes, a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, and an affiliate with the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study while also providing consultation on foreign affairs to the governments of Switzerland and the United Kingdom. He has served as an elected member of the Governing Council of the International Studies Association-Northeast since 2006, and as co-editor of the International Studies Intensives book series (Routledge) since 2016. Past service to the profession includes membership on the editorial boards of the scholarly journals International Studies Review, Simulation & Gaming, and International Studies Perspectives. His commentary on international affairs has appeared in numerous media outlets including ABC News, BBC, CNBC, CNN, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, Reuters, The Conversation, UPI, USA Today, Voice of America, the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), Correio Braziliense (Brazil), CBC (Canada), Expresso (Portugal), Business Times (Singapore), the Korea Times (South Korea), VOA Korea (South Korea), and 360Info (Australia).