David S. Painter teaches international history at Georgetown University. He is a past Director of Graduate Studies in the History Department, and was the founding Director of the Master of Arts in Global, Comparative, and International History program. In spring 2008, he was a visiting fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute. Before coming to Georgetown, he held positions at the Congressional Research Service, the US Department of Energy, and the US Department of State. He was educated at King College, the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.