Democracy and Governance Studies

Raymond Tanter served on the senior staff of the National Security Council and as personal representative of the Secretary of Defense to arms control talks in Europe in the Reagan-Bush administration. He teaches Terrorism and Proliferation as well as an introductory course on International Relations in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown. Tanter is also Visiting Researcher in the Government Department, conducting academic research on "bounded rationality" in foreign policy decisionmaking. His research compares rational choice and prospect theory as complementary explanations of U.S. decisions regarding Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. He is Adjunct Scholar at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, carrying out policy research on Iran and Iraq. He wrote Classifying Evil: Bush Administration Rhetoric and Policy toward Rogue Regimes and Rogue Regimes: Terrorism and Proliferation, which includes chapters on Iran, Iraq, and freelance terrorists who operate in a borderless world of failed states like Afghanistan. He also coauthored Balancing in the Balkans, as well as Rational Decisionmaking: Israel's Choices.