Robert Jackson

Emeritus Professor
Political Science

Robert Jackson

Education

BA, MA, DPhil, Oxford

Contact

Hall of Letters
311-B
P: 909.748.8260
E: robert_jackson@redlands.edu

Dr. Robert Jackson is an Emeritus professor for the Political Science Department. Dr. Jackson was the Fletcher Jones Professor of Government and International Relations at the University of Redlands for 25 years before he retired. He is a continuing Senior Research Associate at the Changing Character of War Programme at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. He also holds the positions of Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and Life Member/Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. He serves as associate Fellow in International Security at Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) London and is a Director of the Atlantic Council of Canada.

After receiving his doctorate from Pembroke College, University of Oxford, he taught courses in Canadian, Comparative, European, and International Relations at Carleton and McGill Universities for over 35 years. He chaired the department of political science at Carleton, managed the House of Commons Parliamentary Internship institution, and was Executive Secretary of the committee on Atlantic Studies for a decade. He continues to teach international relations and advanced seminars on “International Relations, Security and Crises” at Redlands, Carleton, and other Universities around the world.

Dr. Jackson served as a Senior Policy Advisor to two Canadian Prime Ministers and a Deputy Prime Minister, worked several times in the Privy Council Office (Cabinet Office) and has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade as well as many other government agencies.

Professor Jackson is the author and co-author of 39 books (including issues) and some 50 articles in the fields of comparative, Canadian, North American, and international politics.  His recent books include Temptations of Power: the United States in Global Politics Since 9/11; the 7th edition of Politics in Canada: Culture, Institutions, Behaviour and Public Policy; 5th edition of Canadian Government in Transition; and5th edition of Introduction to Political Science: Comparative and World Politics. His latest articles include “Soft Power in Theory and Practice” in the New Strategist and “Westminster Futures: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom in and Comparative Perspective” in The Craft of Governing (Allen and Unwin). 

Cambridge University Press published his newest book on international politics, Global Politics in the 21st Century, in 2013/14. Reviews from the UK and USA call the book “impressive”, “essential reading for everyone with an interest in international relations”, a “lucid and astonishing wide-range analysis”, and “comprehensive.” A new volume Canadian Government and Politics in Transition will be published in 2015 by Pearson after the next General Election.

As well as working on new editions of the books mentioned above, Dr. Jackson is currently engaged on several wide and exciting new projects: US and Europe in Afghanistan (where he serves on the Centre for Afghanistan Peace Studies); North American Security Policy (funded by ACSUS); Bureaucrats and Guns; Nuclear Weapons in the Next Decade; Political Terrorism; and NATO and Peacekeeping. He is undertaking a major study of the complexities of Global Politics and the Changing Nature of Security, especially the role of Children in Armed Conflict and the role of the United Nations in this vital field of human security.

Dr. Jackson teaches courses on World Politics, Comparative Politics, Development and Violence, Canadian government and politics, and International Relations: Strategy and Security. He has travelled and researched throughout most of the developed and developing world, visited most UN peacekeeping sites, and been a Visiting Professor at numerous universities. These latter include the Free University of Berlin and Mannheim University in Germany, Sciences Politiques in  Paris, France, St. Antony’s College Oxford and Clare Hall Cambridge in the UK,  Rotterdam University the Netherlands, the National University, Griffith University , the University of New South Wales, and the Centre for Excellence in Security and Policing in Australia.

He has been a scholar/guest of the governments of the United States, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. He has been a long term member of the Legislative specialists section of IPSA and was a co-founder of the section on Business and Politics. For years, he served on the Committee of Experts of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva.

Among his many awards for teaching, he was chosen by the students as Mortar Professor of the Year his first semester at the University of Redlands, and has received Chamber of Commerce Teaching and University Creative Research Awards. A comprehensive curriculum vitae is available on request.