Rajan Menon
Monroe J. Rathbone Professor
Department Chair  

curriculum vitae
Short Bio

Department of International Relations
207 Maginnes Hall
ph/voice mail:   610-758-3386 
ph/coordinator:  610-758-3390 
fax:             610-758-3393
Email:       rm04@lehigh.edu

Ph.D. University of Illinois, 1979 
International relations theory, arms control and international security (especially in the post-Soviet states and Northeast Asia), nationalism, the comparative study of empires, the international relations and political economy of Central Asia, and globalization (especially the non-economic dimensions).

Click here to view video regarding R. Menon's research.

Courses taught:
IR 10 Introduction to World Politics
IR   23 Alternative World Futures
IR 120 Globalization and World Politics
IR 302 Rise and Decline of Empires

Recent publications:
Energy and Conflict in Central Asia and the Caucasus (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000; contributor and co-editor with Robert Ebel)

Russia, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia: The 21st Century Security Environment (Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 1999; contributor and principal coeditor with Yuri Fyodorov and Ghia Nodia).

"Leaders, Structural Conditions, and the Study of Russian Foreign Policy," ORBIS (Fall, 2001, forthcoming).

"The Balance of Power and US Interests in the Russian Far East," (co-authored with Charles E. Ziegler) in Judith Thornton and Charles E. Ziegler, eds., The Russian Far East: On the Edge of a Precipice ? (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2001, forthcoming).

"Energy, Development and Conflict in the Caspian Sea Region," in Robert Ebel and Rajan Menon, eds., Energy and Conflict in Central Asia and the Caucasus (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), pp. 1-19.

"Russia's Ruinous Chechen War," Foreign Affairs , Vol. 79, No. 2 (March/April 2000), pp. 32-44. (co-authored with Graham E. Fuller)

"Asia in the Twenty-First Century," The National Interest , No. 59 (Spring 2000), pp. 78-86. (co-authored with S. Enders Wimbush).

"The Limits of Neorealism: Understanding Security in Central Asia," Review of International Studies , Vol. 25 (1999), pp. 87-105. (co-authored with Hendrik Spruyt).

"State Formation, Conflict, and Conflict Resolution in Central Asia , " in Barnett R. Rubin and Jack Snyder, eds., Post-Soviet Order: Conflict and State Building (New York: Routledge, 1998); co-authored with Hendrik Spruyt.

"After Empire: Russia and the Southern `Near Abroad , " in Michael Mandelbaum, ed., The New Russian Foreign Policy (New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1998)

Treacherous Terrain: The Political and Security Dimensions of Energy Development in the Caspian Sea Zone (Seattle: National Bureau of Asian Research, 1998).

"Russo-Japanese Relations: Implications for Northeast Asian Security," in Stephen J. Blank and Alvin Z. Rubinstein, eds., Imperial Decline: Russia's Changing Role in Asia (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997).

Work in progress
Book project, The Endurance of Empire (asking why certain empires -- the Romanov, Ottoman, and Roman -- persisted for centuries while most empires prove shortlived)