Professor of International Politics, with a focus on military intervention and security multilateralism

My research and teaching interests center on the politics and ethics of military intervention, multilateral cooperation in security affairs, U.S. foreign policy, and transatlantic relations.

My latest book, Strategies for Approval: Building Support for Military Intervention at the UN Security Council (Yale University Press, 2025) investigates how the United States and other major powers can maximize their chances of gaining UN approval for the use of force, when veto-wielding permanent members such as Russia and China are fiercely opposed at the outset. Drawing on archival research in various countries and original interviews with senior diplomats, I show that in the three decades after the end of the Cold War, securing UN approval in the face of stiff initial opposition required not only leverage from side payments, as scholars have argued, but also determined efforts to reassure deeply reluctant member states about the proposed intervention’s purpose, consequences, and normative appropriateness. This frequently necessitated costly concessions, involving the acceptance of limitations on the use of force embedded in the requested UN resolution. Such concessions, I argue, will be all the more critical in the future if the United States and its allies wish to continue to reap the legitimacy benefits of UN approval under circumstances of increased great-power competition.

My previous book, Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors: U.S. Civil-Military Relations and Multilateral Intervention, was published as part of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs series. The book shows that America’s top generals and admirals play an underappreciated role in steering U.S. intervention policy toward engagement with multilateral institutions like the UN and NATO—especially when no vital national interests are threatened. The reason, I argue, is that military leaders, adept at influencing policy regarding the use of force, typically view a multilateral stamp of approval as valuable to lock in support from foreign allies and partners, and thus to share burdens and liabilities notably on post-combat stabilization. 

I have also published many articles in leading scholarly journals, including International Studies Quarterly, International Theory, the Journal of Politics, Journal of Strategic Studies, Review of International Studies, and Security Studies. My journal articles deal with a variety of issues, including whether public opinion influences the preferences of national security decision-makers, how international alliance relations can shape military intervention decisions, how multilateral endorsements from the UN and the African Union facilitate military coalition building, and the limitations of civilian protection efforts by outside powers in ethnic civil wars. Finally, I have co-edited three books, French Interventions in Africa (Routledge, 2021), Just and Unjust Military Intervention (Cambridge, 2013), and A Cosmopolitanism of Nations (Princeton, 2009).

I received a PhD in political science from Columbia University (with distinction) and hold a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. My research has been funded by the Brookings Institution, Dickey Center at Dartmouth College, European Commission, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Fulbright Commission, Humboldt Foundation, and Rotary Foundation. Before joining SMU, I was a tenured faculty member at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. I was born and raised in the South Tyrol region in the Italian Alps (my sister is a former Olympic skier), speak several languages fluently, and enjoy hiking and other outdoor activities with my wife and two children.

My name is pronounced as /stɛ́fəno /rɛ́kiə/