Research and Teaching Interests:

My research has focused on the international, diplomatic and political history of Europe since 1939. I have written on French diplomacy of the post-WWII era, and published a survey of Europe’s history from the end of the Second World War up to the present. My most recent book explores the civilian experience of liberation in Europe at the close of World War II. At the moment, I am working on a short history of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and the legacy of World War II in creating a new global human rights order.

I teach a variety of courses that deal with twentieth century European and international history, such as: “Europe since 1945,” “Strategy and Diplomacy of the Great Powers, 1750 to the Present,” “Hitler’s Europe, 1939-1945: Genocide, Resistance, Collaboration,” “France in Crisis: 1931-1962,” “The Cold War and After: World Politics since 1945,” “Historical Origins of Contemporary Conflict,” “The First World War,” and “The Global Crisis: Power and Politics in the 20th Century. I normally teach graduate seminars on World War II and on European international history of the twentieth century.

Representative Publications:

Books

The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe (New York. Free Press, 2008)

The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent, 1945-2002 (New York: Doubleday, 2003; Anchor Books paperback, 2004). Translated into Italian and Hebrew.

From War to Peace: Altered Strategic Landscapes in the Twentieth Century. Co-edited with Paul Kennedy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).

France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Stability in Europe, 1945-1954 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998).

[France Restored was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 1999.]

Refereed Articles

“Pierre Boisson, French West Africa, and the Postwar épuration: A Case from the Aix Files.” French Historical Studies 24 (2: Spring 2001), 305-41.

“France, the Western Alliance, and the Origins of the Schuman Plan, 1948-1950.” Diplomatic History 21 (4: Fall 1997), 603-30.

Book Chapters

“Crisis and Modernization in the Fourth Republic: From Suez to Rome.” In Crisis and Renewal in France, 1918-1962, edited by Martin Alexander and Kenneth Mouré (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2002), 221-241.

“Reversal of Fortune: France and Britain in the Postwar World, 1945-1956,” in Altered Strategic Landscapes in the Twentieth Century (New Haven: Yale Press, 2000).

“Prospects for Europe and the Atlantic Alliance at Century’s End.” In Future Challenges in European and American Security Policy, edited by Kurt R. Spillmann and Andreas Wegner (Bern: Peter Lang, 1999).

“France.” Encyclopedia of American Foreign Relations (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 162-178.

Essays

“The Greatest Myth,” Prospect Magazine, April 2003 (no. 85), 10-11.

“State of the Nations,” Reuters Magazine, March/April 2003 (no. 55), 30-33.

“Counterblast: Has postwar Europe been a good example to a troubled world?” BBC History Magazine, March 2003 (4, no.3), 45.

Recent papers and public lectures

"Liberation on the Normandy Frontier, 1944-45," International History Workshop, Temple, May 19, 2007.

"The Future of the Alliance," NATO Defense College, Rome, October 2006.

 “The Marshall Plan and the Creation of the West,” Conference on the Cambridge History of the Cold War, March 30-April 2, 2006, Truman Presidential Library, Independence, MO.

“France’s German Dilemma from Schuman to de Gaulle: une certaine idée de l’Allemagne,” Georgetown University, BMW Center for German and European Studies, March 24, 2006.

“The Historian and the Public,” Cambridge University, UK, June 2005.

“The Ghost of Crises Past: The Paradoxical Strength of the Atlantic Alliance,” Georgetown University, June 25, 2004.

“The Atlantic Alliance after Iraq,” Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, February 28, 2004.

“Europe and America: The Shattered Alliance,” Edinburgh Book Festival, Scotland, August 9, 2003.

“Europe Lost the Iraq War,” International Festival of Arts and Ideas,
New Haven, June 25, 2003.

“Varieties of Liberation: Europeans at the Close of World War II,” Wellesley College Summer Symposium on World War II, June 5, 2003.

“The Continuing Struggle for Europe,” Harvard Club of New York, February 25, 2003.

“The United States and Europe: Smooth Sailing or Storm Clouds Ahead?” Geneva Center for Security Policy, Geneva, Switzerland, August 2000.

“Pierre Boisson, French West Africa, and the Post-Vichy Purge Trials: A Case from the Aix Files,” International History Colloquium, Yale University, January 1999.

“Prospects for the Atlantic Alliance in the Twenty-first Century,” Geneva Center for Security Policy, Geneva, Switzerland, August 24, 1998.

“The Lessons of Suez: France, the United States, and the Origins of the Treaty of Rome,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Washington, DC, June 1998.

“France and the European Defense Community Debate, 1950-1954,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Boulder CO, June 23, 1996.

“Autonomy and Hegemony in the Western Alliance: France and the Politics of German Rearmament, 1950-1954,” Society for French Historical Studies, Boston, March 23, 1996.