Zagare Elected Vice President of International Studies Association

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Frank C. Zagare, professor and chair of the Department of the Political Science in the University at Buffalo's College of Arts and Sciences, has been elected vice president of the International Studies Association for 2006-07.

The International Studies Association is the leading scholarly association in the field of international relations.

A UB faculty member since 1987 and department chair from 1991-94 and 1996 to the present, Zagare has been called "one of the major contributors to game theoretic approaches to international relations."

Game theory deals with interactive situations in which the outcome depends on the players' actions. The theory is applied to the study of the strategic ramifications of nations' strategies and tactics.

Zagare's main research interests lie in the nexus between security studies and game theory. His theoretical work has focused on deterrence, crises, conflict escalation, and bargaining and negotiation. He has applied game theory to a number of international events, including the Berlin crisis of 1948, great power negotiations over Vietnam in Geneva in 1954 and in Paris from 1968-73, the 1967 and 1973 wars in the Middle East, NATO's 1999 war with Serbia over Kosovo, and the strategic relationship of the superpowers during the Cold War.

Before coming to UB, Zagare was a faculty member at Boston University, where he also was an associate of the university's Center for International Relations.

The author of several books and monographs, the most recent of which is "Perfect Deterrence," Zagare has published numerous book chapters, articles and book reviews, as well as presented papers at national and international meetings and symposia.

Zagare currently is on the editorial board of International Interactions and has served on the editorial board of International Studies Quarterly, on the advisory panel of the National Science Foundation, as a councilor for the Peace Science Society (International) and as a council member of the Conflict Processes Section of the American Political Science Association.

His research has been supported by grants from the NSF, the International Studies Association and the United States Institute of Peace.

A resident of North Buffalo, he received a bachelor's degree from Fordham University and master's and doctoral degrees from New York University, all in political science, and was a fellow in the MIT/Harvard Summer Program on Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control.