Professor
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., Columbia Unversity
Certificate, Harriman Institute, Columbia University

Office: 1728 HW
Voice:  212.772.5502
Fax:     212.650.3669
Email: croberts@hunter.cuny.edu. 
Twitter:  @CARoberts_001

Area of Specialization:  International Relations

Courses:   
PLSC 100:  Introduction to Politics: Democracy, Anarchy, and the State
PLSC 115:  Introduction to International Politics
PLSC 270:  International Relations: Conceptual Foundations and Current Issues
PLSC 273.08: Great Powers and Global Politics
PLSC 273.30: China, Russia and the US in Great Power Competition
PLSC 282:  International Security
PLSC 377:  Theories of International Politics
PLSC 378:  Russian National Interest: Past & Present
PLSC 379:  War and Strategy
PLSC 380:  European Security
PLSC 383:  Rising Powers, China, the U.S, and World Order
PLSC 385: The Nuclear Age: Nuclear Weapons, War and Peace
HONS 2011:  Contemporary Russia in a Globalized World
HONS 301.25: Post-Communist Europe: Political and Economic Challenges

Bio:  Cynthia Roberts is a Professor of Political Science at Hunter College and also a Senior Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies and Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University. In 2019, Dr. Roberts served as a policy adviser at the Joint Staff, Department of Defense in J-5, Strategy, Plans and Policy. Prof. Roberts is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, she was Director of the Russian Area Studies Graduate Program at Hunter and served as a member of the Executive Committee on Science, Arms Control, and National Security of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Roberts has held research fellowships at the Brookings Institution and Stanford University, received several grants, including from the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and serves as a consultant on international security issues. 

Recent Publications:
*  "The Challenges of Decoding Russian Coercion" Review Essay for Roundtable on Russian Ways of Thinking About Deterrence, Texas National Security Review, September 10, 2024.
*  Complexity, Nonlinearity and other Essential Jervis Insights on International Security Problems," in The Jervis Effect (Columbia University Press, forthcoming).
*  Foreword to Nuclear Strategy in the 21st Century: Continuity or Change, A. Gilli and P. de Dreuzy eds. (NATO Defense College, 2022).
*  “Robert Jervis: His Enduring Legacy," in H-Diplo | ISSF Tribute to the Life, Scholarship, and Legacy of Robert Jervis: Part II, August 2022, pp. 77-82.
*  “Revelations about Russia's Nuclear Deterrence Policy,” War on the Rocks, June 19, 2020.
*  “The Sum of All Fears: Nuclear Threats Reemerge as a Source of European Insecurity,” European Security Challenges, no. 1, 2016, pp. 129-161.
*  “Coping with Nuclear Terrorism and Nuclear Weapons Proliferation,” in What is the Worst That Could Happen? The Politics and Policy of Crisis Management, ed. Hugh Liebert, et al. (2016), pp. 169-189.  
*  “The Czar of Brinkmanship.” Foreign Affairs. 5 May 2014.  cynthia-a-roberts/the-czar-of-brinkmanship

*  “Trapped on the Eve of War, 1941: Stalin and his Generals Failing Separately and Together,” in B.A. Chotiner and L.J. Cook, eds. The Postcommunist World in the Twenty-First Century: How the Past Informs the Present [Festschrift for Seweryn Bialer], 2022. (Using newly declassified Soviet war plans for 1941, this chapter explains why Soviet war plans worked at cross purposes with Stalin's objective of deterrence and war avoidance before the German invasion on June 22, 1941. This was also the most important case demonstrating that brilliant Soviet military theorists never worked out contradictions in military doctrine and organization before or after the purges, while implementation was a disaster. 1941 is the large scale precursor to understanding the Russian failures in the war against Ukraine.)  
*  Review essay on Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 (by Stephen Kotkin) H-Diplo Roundtable, vol. XX, no. 30, March 2019, pp. 16-36.  

*  The BRICS and Collective Financial Statecraft. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018 (with L.E. Armijo and S.N. Katada).    Reviewed in Foreign Affairs, Perspectives on Politics, International Affairs, and The Syndicate among other publications. Noted as one of the “Top 5 Books” (April 2019) by International Affairs (Chatham House, UK). 
* Chinese translation with a new Preface, 辛西娅·罗伯茨 et al., 金砖国家与集体金融治略 (Shanghai Century Publishing, 2022).        

*  "Russia at War: The Consequences for Great Power Politics, the BRICS and the Global South, Transatlantic Politcy Quarterly, March 2024.
*  “Russian Brinkmanship Meets Weaponized Finance: Prepare for Deterrence to Fail,” The National Interest,  Dec. 21, 2021. 
* "Avoid Allowing Opponents to 'Beat America at its own Game': Ensuring US Financial and Currency Power," in·Chinese Strategic Intentions:·A Strategic Multilayer Assessment (SMA) White Paper, 2019.
* "The BRICS in the Era of Renewed Great Power Competition,"·Strategic Analysis,·vol. 43, no. 6 (2019), pp. 469-486.
* “The Varieties of Collective Financial Statecraft: the BRICS and China” Political Science Quarterly vol. 132, no. 3 (Fall 2017), 403-433 (with S.N. Katada and L.E. Armijo); reprinted in Andrew Scobell, ed. China in a World of Great Power Competition, Academy of Political Science, 2023.

*  “Robert Jervis: His Enduring Legacy," in H-Diplo | ISSF Tribute to the Life, Scholarship, and Legacy of Robert Jervis: Part II, August 2022, pp. 77-82.
*  “Russian Brinkmanship Meets Weaponized Finance: Prepare for Deterrence to Fail,” The National Interest,  Dec. 21, 2021. 
*  “Revelations about Russia's Nuclear Deterrence Policy,” War on the Rocks, June 19, 2020.
*  “The Sum of All Fears: Nuclear Threats Reemerge as a Source of European Insecurity,” European Security Challenges, no. 1, 2016, pp. 129-161.
*  “Coping with Nuclear Terrorism and Nuclear Weapons Proliferation,” in What is the Worst That Could Happen? The Politics and Policy of Crisis Management, ed. Hugh Liebert, et al. (2016), pp. 169-189.  
*  “The Czar of Brinkmanship.” Foreign Affairs. 5 May 2014.  cynthia-a-roberts/the-czar-of-brinkmanship

*  “Are the BRICS Building a Non-Western Concert of Powers?” The National Interest, July 8, 2015.
*  “The Emerging Powers and Global Governance: Why the BRICS Matter,” (with L.E. Armijo) in Robert Looney, ed., Handbook of Emerging Economies (Routledge, 2014).
*  “Building the New World Order BRIC by BRIC” The European Financial Review (Febuary - March 2011).
*  Editor and “Introduction,” Forum on “Challengers or Stakeholders? BRICs and The Liberal World Order.” Polity, vol. 42, no. 1 (January 2010), 1-13.
*  “Russia's BRICs Diplomacy: Rising Outsider with Dreams of an Insider.” Polity, vol. 42, no. 1 (January 2010), 38-73.
*  Russia and the European Union: The Sources and Limits of ‘Special Relationships’ (2007).

Selected Work in Progress:  
The Future of Strategic Stability: Concealing and Revealing Military Doctrines along the Strategic Stability Frontier.
“Preemption Pressures and other Offensive Dangers: How much do Autocrats Understand about their Military’s Operational Planning? Lessons from Soviet History.”         
Managing Blowback and Escalatory Risks from the US Weaponization of Finance.
Explaining Military Effectiveness and Failure: Stalin and the Red Army.

Useful documents for students:
Getting a letter of recommendation
IR Internships