Daniel Nexon

Nexon grew up in Washington, DC and attended the Georgetown Day School. While in high school, he participated in policy debate and was a nationally ranked competitor. His senior year, he and his debate partner, Rebecca Tushnet, reached the finals of the Tournament of Champions. Nexon then attended Harvard University, where he briefly debated and also wrote for the Harvard International Review.[6] He graduated with a B.A. in 1995.

Nexon began a Ph.D. program in political science at Columbia University in 1995. He received his M.A. and M.Phil. before graduating with a Ph.D. in 2004. While in graduate school, he began collaborating on a series of papers with Patrick Jackson exploring the role of ideas in international politics. Their papers, part of a theoretical school described as constructivism, have led them both to be placed on lists of notable constructivists.[7][8][9]

Nexon is primarily known for two areas of his research. First, Nexon is one of the most preeminent experts on the relationship between religion and international politics. His first book, The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change explores the way the Protestant Reformation "gave rise to crosscutting religious networks that underpinned the ability of early modern European rulers to divide and contain local resistance to their authority. In doing so, the Reformations produced a series of crises in the European order and crippled the Habsburg bid for hegemony."[10] Peter J. Katzenstein said that "[f]ew recent books in international relations and history rival what Daniel Nexon has accomplished in this impressive piece of scholarship. The book's fresh conceptualizations opens new vistas on the past experiences, present conditions, and future trajectories of international relations."[10]

Second, Nexon also engages in research designed to link together the study of international politics with important elements of western culture such as Harry Potter. Nexon has been quoted in newspapers, magazines, and television for his collaborative studies on the intersection between the Harry Potter series and international affairs.[11][12] In the 2007 Time story on woman of the year J.K. Rowling, Nexon stated that "for people articulating concerns about globalization in their cultural setting. It's incredibly significant that Potter even enters these debates."[13] Nexon co-edited a volume titled "Harry Potter and World Politics", published in 2006, that applies international relations theorizing to the world of Harry Potter and the politics of Harry Potter in general.[14]

Nexon also founded and helps maintain The Duck of Minerva, an academic international-relations weblog.[15]

• Nexon, Daniel H. (April 20, 2009). The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691137933.
• Nexon, Daniel H.; Neumann, Iver B., eds. (May 2006). Harry Potter and International Relations. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-3959-4.

• "Hegemonic-order theory: A field-theoretic account." (co-authored with Iver Neumann). European Journal of International Relations (2017).[16]
• “Paradigmatic Faults in International Relations Theory.” (co-authored with Patrick Thaddeus Jackson). International Studies Quarterly 53.4 (2009)
• “The Balance of Power in the Balance.” World Politics 61.3 (2009)
• “What’s This, Then? ‘Romanes Eunt Domus’?.” International Studies Perspectives 9.3 (2008)
• “What’s at Stake in the American Empire Debate.” (co-authored with Thomas Wright). American Political Science Review 101.2 (2007)
• “Paradigm Lost? Structural Realism and Structural Functionalism.” (co-authored with Stacie E. Goddard). European Journal of International Relations 10.1 (2005)
• “Zeitgeist? Neo-idealism and International Political Change.” Review of International Political Economy 12.4 (2005)
• “Constructivist Realism or Realist-Constructivism?.” (co-authored with Patrick Thaddeus Jackson). International Studies Review 2.6 (2004)
• “Which Historical Sociology?.” Review of International Studies 27.2 (2001)
• “Whence Causal Mechanisms? A Comment on Legro.” (co-authored with Patrick Thaddeus Jackson). Dialogue IO 1.1 (2001)
• “Relations before States: Substance, Process, and the Study of World Politics.” (co-authored with Patrick Thaddeus Jackson). European Journal of International Relations 5.3 (1999)