Todd Sechser

Faculty Senior Fellow

Fast Facts

Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the University of Virginia
Coauthor of Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy
Nonresident scholar, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Expertise in international relations, foreign policy, nuclear security, emerging technologies

Areas Of Expertise

Foreign Affairs
American Defense and Security
War and Terrorism
World Happenings

Todd S. Sechser is professor of politics and a faculty senior fellow at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He is also a nonresident scholar in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research focuses on coercive diplomacy, nuclear security, emerging military technologies, and foreign policy.

Sechser is coauthor of Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy (Cambridge University Press) and coeditor of Emerging Technologies and International Stability (Routledge). His work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, and the Journal of Strategic Studies, among other journals, and his policy writing has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other media venues. He previously directed the multi-university Program on Strategic Stability Evaluation, a nuclear strategy study group, and was the founding director of the UVA Karsh Institute’s Democratic Statecraft Lab.

Secher's research has been supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the U.S. Air Force, and the Stanton Foundation, and he regularly consults for several government and military agencies.

Sechser was previously a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a postdoctoral fellow at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University. He received his PhD in political science from Stanford University, where his dissertation won the Walter Isard Award for the Best Dissertation in Peace Science. Before entering academia, Sechser worked as a nuclear policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He has received multiple awards for teaching, including the All-University Teaching Award and the inaugural Cory Family Teaching Award. He currently directs the Politics Honors Program.

Todd Sechser News Feed

North & South Korea : Todd Sechser

Todd Sechser joins Les Sinclair to discuss North and South Korea and the upcoming summit

Todd Sechser WINA

Implications of Warmbier lawsuit against North Korea considered amid peace talks

Miller Center Senior Fellow Todd Sechser says the Warmbier case is particularly timely in the current international climate: “North Korea is in the process of trying to mend its international image."

Todd Sechser The Cavalier Daily

Wake-Up Call: North Korea and the US Summit

Sunday Morning Wake-up Call host Rick Moore talks with University of Virginia Professor of Politics Todd Sechser about USA relations with North Korea and the proposed upcoming US Summit.

Todd Sechser Charlottesville Podcasting Network

Q&A: Denuclearization in North Korea? Todd Sechser isn't holding his breath

We asked Todd Sechser, an associate professor in the University of Virginia’s Department of Politics and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, to break down the big announcement from the two countries, which have been locked in a tense armistice since fighting concluded in 1953. Sechser, who is also a senior fellow at the Miller Center, specializes in international security and co-authored the 2017 book “Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy.”

Todd Sechser UVA Today

Talking politics at the Virginia Festival of the Book

Miller Center scholars are featured in a wide range of Virginia Festival of the Book events this week

The Threats from Russia and North Korea | Todd Sechser

Todd Sechser, Associate Professor in the Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics and Senior Fellow at the Miller Center at University of Virginia, specializing in questions of international security, and co-author of Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy discusses with Les Sinclair the recent developments from Russia and North Korea.