Stacie Goddard Named Director of SIPA’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies

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Stacie Goddard has been named director of the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia SIPA and will hold the Arnold A. Saltzman Professorship starting in July 2026. 

Goddard served as the Betty Freyhof Johnson ’44 Professor of Political Science and Associate Provost for Wellesley in the World at Wellesley College, where she has taught since 2005. Her research and teaching focus on great power competition, with particular attention to the global politics of legitimacy and revisionist powers. She is also a Faculty Affiliate with the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and formerly served as faculty director of the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs at Wellesley.

“I have long been indebted to the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies,” said Goddard. “As a PhD student at Columbia, I spent much of my time on the ‘13th floor’ and benefited from the guidance of SIWPS scholars, including Robert Jervis, Jack Snyder, Warner Schilling, and Richard Betts. To now join the next generation of brilliant scholars at the Saltzman Institute, and help direct our efforts in a time of significant uncertainty, is a great honor.”

Her most recent book, When Right Makes Might: Rising Powers and the Challenge to World Order (Cornell University Press, 2018), examines how a rising power’s legitimation strategy shapes whether great powers accommodate or confront a potential challenger. Her first book, Indivisible Territory and the Politics of Legitimacy: Jerusalem and Northern Ireland (Cambridge University Press, 2010), explores how narratives of legitimacy are used to secure contested territory. A third book, Dynamics of Power Politics, coauthored with Paul MacDonald and Daniel Nexon, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2027. Her articles have appeared in International Security, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, and other leading journals, and her public writing has been published in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

She has held fellowships at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, the Security Studies Program at MIT, and the Center for Advanced Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, among others. She earned a BA from the University of Chicago and a PhD in political science from Columbia University.

“Stacie combines everything one hopes for in a Saltzman director: a first-rate scholar, a dedicated teacher, and a thoughtful academic leader. Her scholarship has fundamentally advanced our understanding of great power politics and international order, and as a Columbia PhD, she understands the unique mission and legacy of Saltzman. I am thrilled to welcome her back to Columbia,” said SIPA Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo, who also served as director of the Saltzman Institute from 2020–22. “I am equally grateful to Elizabeth Saunders for guiding the Institute as interim director during this period of transition with creativity, energy, and vision. Her contributions, including the launch of a student-led podcast, Chalkboard Politics, will continue to shape Saltzman for years to come.”

Saunders will return to Columbia’s Department of Political Science after completing her term as interim director.

The Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies was founded as the Institute of War and Peace Studies in 1951, under the sponsorship of Dwight D. Eisenhower during his tenure as president of Columbia University, in an effort to promote an understanding of “the disastrous consequences of war upon man’s spiritual, intellectual, and material progress.” Saltzman faculty are world-renowned for their understanding of war, history, and international relations, applying theory and rigorous empirical research to train future leaders, diplomats, and military strategists.