Experts

John M. Owen IV

Faculty Senior Fellow

Fast Facts

  • Recipient of fellowships from the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, and the Center of International Studies at Princeton
  • Member of the editorial board of International Security
  • Expertise on war, regime change, religion, and international security

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • American Defense and Security
  • War and Terrorism
  • Religion

John M. Owen is a Miller Center faculty senior fellow and Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Professor of Politics. He is the author of Liberal Peace, Liberal War: American Politics and International Security (Cornell University Press, 1997) and The Clash of Ideas in World Politics: Transnational Networks, States, and Regime Change 1510-2010 (Princeton University Press, 2010). He is also co-editor of Religion, the Enlightenment, and the New Global Order (Columbia University Press, 2011).

Owen has published work in Foreign Affairs, International Politics, International Organization, Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics, The National Interest, and several edited volumes. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, and the Center of International Studies at Princeton. His research has been funded by the MacArthur, Earhart, and Donchian Foundations. He is a member of the editorial board of International Security and a faculty fellow at the UVA Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. 

John M. Owen IV News Feed

UVA Today
John Owen welcomes healthy debate about a contentious world in his classroom
Ideas matter to University of Virginia politics professor John M. Owen IV. “Many scholars in the field really don’t talk about ideas,” said Owen, the Ambassador Henry J. and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Professor of Politics, and a senior fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture and the Miller Center for Public Affairs. “International relations for them is about material power – weapons, ships, soldiers, technology or money. And ideas really aren’t a part of this picture, except in a trivial way. I’ve always thought that’s wrong. Ideas do matter,” he said. “The notion that politics is just about who has the most guns has never been satisfactory to me – it’s also who’s got the words and the ideas.”
John M. Owen IV UVA Today
screenshot of conference title superimposed over image of American, Russian, Chinese, and EU flags with Ukrainian flag at the center
The price of aggression: Russia's war in Ukraine
The 2022 Ambassador William C. Battle Symposium on American Diplomacy addressed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting shifts in the global geopolitical landscape and featured the University of Virginia's Miller Center faculty Senior Fellow John M. Owen IV.
John M. Owen IV Miller Center Presents
Photograph of afternoon panel at Rothermere American Institute on May 17, 2022.
The state of play: the Biden administration at midterm
In a round-table discussion, participants including the University of Virginia's Miller Center Faculty Senior Fellow John M. Owen IV addressed the successes and failures of the Biden administration to date, and prospects for the midterm elections in November.
John M. Owen IV RAIOxford
Public Morality
Episode 250 John Owen
UVA professor John Owen discusses the latest in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
John M. Owen IV The Public Morality
Miller Center Presents
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. on defeating Putin
William B. Taylor Jr., former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, joins a panel of Miller Center and UVA experts on war and foreign policy to analyze Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As Taylor wrote recently: “Atrocities and mass civilian casualties, in a Russian assault that President Biden and others have labeled an act of genocide, only heighten the question for democracies of how to respond. Accountability will be vital. But an immediate imperative is to stop this aggression by defeating Putin and supporting Ukrainians’ battle to preserve their own freedom. That battle is crucial to the protection of international rule of law—and, given Putin’s implacability, to any hope for peace.”
John M. Owen IV Miller Center Presents
UVA Today
Q&A: Assessing US Assistance, Russian Warnings and Critical Question of Ukraine War
As the United States continues to be a major contributor to Ukraine’s war effort, Russia has warned the U.S. to back off. This news was first reported by The Washington Post, citing a diplomatic note from Moscow to Washington that said U.S. weapon shipments were “adding fuel” to the conflict in Eastern Europe. As a result, Russia said, the U.S. could be hit with “unpredictable consequences.” Undeterred, President Biden on Thursday announced an additional $800 million military package to be sent Ukraine’s way, including heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and drones. How does this play out? How seriously should the Biden administration take the Russian threats? And what would be the war’s tipping point to force the U.S. and NATO into direct military action? UVA Today caught up with University of Virginia politics professor John Owen to analyze the situation. A Miller Center of Public Affairs senior fellow, Owen has expertise in foreign affairs, American defense and security, and war and terrorism.
John M. Owen IV UVA Today