Richard Samuels

Richard J. Samuels is Ford International Professor of Political Science. He was formally Director of the Center for International Studies, stepping down in July 2023 after two decades of service. He has been head of the MIT Political Science Department, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Japan of the National Research Council, and Chair of the Japan-US Friendship Commission. He has also been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and was awarded an imperial decoration, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Prime Minister. From 2014 to 2019 he was an Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Berlin, where he directed a research group on East Asian Security during the summer. His study of the political and policy consequences of the 2011 Tohoku catastrophe, 3:11: Disaster and Change in Japan, was published by Cornell University Press in 2013. Samuels’ Securing Japan: Tokyo’s Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia, was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize for the best book in international affairs. Machiavelli’s Children won the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies and the Jervis-Schroeder Prize from the International History and Politics section of American Political Science Association. Earlier books were awarded prizes from the Association for Asian Studies, the Association of American University Press, and the Ohira Memorial Foundation. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, International Security, Political Science Quarterly, International Organization, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, National Interest, Journal of Japanese Studies, and Daedalus. His history of the Japanese intelligence community, Special Duty, was named one of the "Best of Books 2019" by Foreign Affairs, and its translation has been an Amazon best seller in Japan since its publication by Nikkei Books in 2021. His current project, "Kidnapping Politics," examines the domestic and foreign policy implications of captivity.