Thomas Cavanna

• PhD, Sciences Po, Paris, France
• MA, Sciences Po, Paris, France
• MA, Audencia Nantes School of Management, Nantes, France
• BA, New Sorbonne University, Paris, France

Thomas P. Cavanna is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Strategic Studies. A historian with a deep appreciation for IR theory and policy, he writes widely on grand strategy and American foreign policy in South and East Asia. Dr. Cavanna is the author of two books: Hubris, Self-Interest, and America's Failed War in Afghanistan: the Self-Sustaining Overreach (Lexington, Rowan & Littlefield, 2015); and Paradigmatic Volatility: US Foreign Policy towards India and Pakistan in the 1970s (French National Committee for Scientific Research, 2017). He also published an article on U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy in South Asia in the Journal of Strategic Studies ("Geopolitics over Proliferation: The Origins of US Grand Strategy and Their Implications for the Spread of Nuclear Weapons in South Asia", 2016) and various articles in France. His current book project is on geopolitics and US grand strategy.

Prior to arriving at the Fletcher School, Dr. Cavanna was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Southern Methodist University (Tower Center) and Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a French "Agrégation" in History, an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Sciences Po, an MA in Management from Audencia Business School, and a B.A. in Modern Literature from Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle. He was also a Fox International Fellow at Yale University.

Courses taught

• DHP D261 Afghanistan and the U.S. "War of Necessity"
• DHP D262 The U.S. in South Asia since 1947: From Cold War to New Alignments?
• DHP H241 Grand Strategies in History: from the Greek City-States to America’s 21th Century Hegemony
• DHP P277 Introduction to Nuclear Security: History, Policy, and Theory