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  • Applied History
  • Nuclear History
  • History of International Monetary Relations
  • Cold War History
  • National and International Security
  • International History

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    Francis J. Gavin
    Visiting Fellow
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    Francis J. Gavin is the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and the director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. His most recent book, Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy (Yale University Press, 2025), was awarded the 2026 Lionel Gelber Prize.

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    To view, the complete bio visit https://www.hoover.org/profiles/francis-j-gavin.

About

Francis J. Gavin is the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and the inaugural director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Previously, he was the first Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear Security Policy Studies at MIT and the Tom Slick Professor of International Affairs and the director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas. He is a founding advisor of the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy and the founding chair of the editorial board for the Texas National Security Review. From 2005 until 2010, he directed The American Assembly’s Next Generation Project: US Global Policy and the Future of International Institutions. He earned his BA at the University of Chicago in political science, a MSt. from Oxford in modern European history, and a PhD in history from the University of Pennsylvania.

Gavin’s writings include Gold, Dollars, and Power: The Politics of International Monetary Relations, 1958–1971 (University of North Carolina Press, 2007); Nuclear Statecraft: History and Strategy in America’s Atomic Age (Cornell University Press, 2012); and Nuclear Weapons and American Grand Strategy (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), which was named a 2020 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. The Taming of Scarcity and the Problems of Plenty: Rethinking International Relations and American Grand Strategy in a New Era (Routledge, 2024), was published as an IISS/Adelphi book. In 2025, Yale University Press issued Wonder and Worry: Contemporary History in an Age of Uncertainty  and Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy, which was awarded the 2026 Lionel Gelber Prize.

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