August 08 2023
Rajan Menon holds the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair in International Relations at the City College of New York/City University of New York and is a Senior Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University and Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Until August 2012 he was the Monroe J. Rathbone Distinguished Professor of International Relations and chairman of the International Relations Department at Lehigh University. He has also taught at Vanderbilt and Columbia Universities.
Menon’s areas of academic expertise include: international security, US foreign and national security policy, Russia and the other post-Soviet states, the international relations of Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and East Asia). He has served as Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Fellow at the New America Foundation, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Visiting Fellow at the Harriman Institute (Columbia University), Research Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Senior Advisor and Academic Fellow at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Director of Eurasia Policy Studies at the National Bureau of Asian Research NBR). In 1989-90 Menon served as Special Assistant for National Security and Arms Control to Congressman Stephen J. Solarz (D-NY). He has severed as an Associate of the National Intelligence Council for several years and has provided briefings for, and participated in conferences at the NIC, the State Department, and has served as a consultant for various US government projects.
Menon has received fellowships and grants from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Carnegie Corporation, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the German Marshall Fund, the US Institute of Peace, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Smith Richardson Foundation. He was selected as a Carnegie Scholar for 2002-03. He was awarded the Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching at Vanderbilt University and, at Lehigh University, the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Eleanor and Joseph F. Libsch Research Award. His books include Soviet Power and the Third World (Yale University Press, 1986); The End of Alliances (Oxford University Press, 2007); Ukraine in Conflict: The Unwinding of the Cold War Order (MIT Press, 2015), coauthored with Eugene B. Rumer; and The Conceit of Humanitarian Intervention (Oxford University Press 2016). His next book, Russia after Putin (coauthored with Eugene B. Rumer), is under preparation for publication by Oxford University Press.
He is author or co-author of more than seventy-five journal articles and book chapters, most recently, “Puncturing the Myth of Putin’s Genius,” Foreign Policy, No. 235 (Winter 2020), pp. 7-9; “NATO Expansion and US Grand Strategy: A Net Assessment,” coauthored with William Ruger, International Politics, Vol. 55, Special Issue (2020), pp. 371-400; “Humanitarian Intervention and US Power,” in David Engerman, Paul Max Friedman, and Melani McAlister, eds., Cambridge History of America and the World, Vol. IV (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, in press, 2020); “Taiwan’s Balancing Act,” co-authored with Eric Heginbotham, National Interest (March/April 2019), 22-29; “In Defense of The Conceit of Humanitarianism,” Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 21, No. 1 (2019), 120-130; “Democracy a la Modi,” co-authored with Sumit Ganguly, National Interest (January/February 2018), 12-24; “Buffer Zones: Anachronism, Power Vacuum, or Confidence Builder?” co-authored with Jack Snyder, Review of International Studies Vol. 43, No. 5 (December 2017), 962-986.
Menon’s opinion and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune (now the Global New York Times), Newsweek, CNN.com, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Newsday, Chicago Tribune, and washingtonpost.com. He has been a consultant to various US government agencies and a commentator on NPR, ABC, BBC, CNN, MS-NBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and France TV-24.
Books
Rajan Menon, The Conceit of Humanitarian Intervention (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Rajan Menon and Eugene B. Rumer, Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post-Cold War Order (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2015).
Rajan Menon, The End of Alliances (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2007).
Russia, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia: The 21st Century Security Environment, eds. Rajan Menon, Yuri Fyodorov, and Ghia Nodia (Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 1999)
Rajan Menon, Soviet Power and the Third World (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986).
Principal Articles
Eric Heginbotham and Rajan Menon, “Taiwan’s Balancing Act,” National Interest (March/April 2019).
Rajan Menon, “In Defense of The Conceit of Humanitarianism,” Journal of Genocide Research 21, no. 1 (2019).
Sumit Ganguly and Rajan Menon, “Democracy a la Modi,” National Interest (January/February 2018).
Thomas Graham, Rajan Menon, and Jack Snyder, “Ukraine between Russia and the West: Buffer or Flashpoint?,” World Policy Journal 34, no. 1 (Spring 2017).
Rajan Menon and Jack Snyder, “Buffer Zones: Anachronism, Power Vacuum, or Confidence Builder?,” Review of International Studies 43, no. 5 (2017).
Rajan Menon, “On Robert Legvold’s Return to Cold War,” Roundtable 9-12 on Return to Cold War, H-Diplo/ISSF, vol. 9, no. 12 (2017).
Rajan Menon, “Why Humanitarian Intervention Still Isn’t a Global Norm,” Current History 116, no. 786 (January 2017).
Rajan Menon, “Asia’s New Balance of Power,” National Interest 146 ( November-December 2016).
Rajan Menon, “The Specter of Relativism,” Politics, Religion, and Ideology 17, no. 2-3 (June 2016).
Rajan Menon, “The India Myth,” National Interest, no. 134 (November-December 2014).
Rajan Menon, “Neomercantilism and the Competition for Energy in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea,” Strategic Studies Quarterly 8, no. 2 (Summer 2014).
Rajan Menon, “Asia’s Looming Power Shift,” National Interest, no. 127 (September-October 2013).
Rajan Menon, “The Responsibility to Protect: It’s Fatally Flawed,” American Interest 8, no. 6 (July-August 2013).
Rajan Menon, “Culture Wars,” Survival 53, no. 6 (December 2011-January 2012).
Rajan Menon, “Why Moscow and Beijing Balk at ‘Interference,” Current History 111, no. 748 (November 2012).
Rajan Menon, “When America Leaves: Asia After the Afghan War,” The American Interest 7, no. 5 (May-June 2012).
Rajan Menon and Alexander J. Motyl, “Counterrevolution in Kiev,” Foreign Affairs 90, no. 6 (October-November 2011).
Rajan Menon, “The Two Ukraines,” German Marshall Fund of the United States (July 2011).
Rajan Menon, “Breaking the State,” The National Interest no. 113 (May-June 2011).
Charles King and Rajan Menon, “Prisoner of the Caucasus: Russia’s Invisible Civil War,” Foreign Affairs 89, no. 4 (July-August 2010).
Rajan Menon, “Pax Americana and the Rising Powers,” Current History 108, no. 721 (November 2009).
Rajan Menon, “Pious Words, Puny Deeds: The ‘International Community’ and Mass Atrocities,” Ethics and International Affairs 23, no. 3 (Fall 2009). Reprinted as “Pious Words and Puny Deeds: The ‘International Community’ and Mass Atrocities,” in Uzi Rabi, ed., International Intervention in Local Conflicts: Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution since the Cold War (London: I.B. Tauris, 2010).
Rajan Menon, “Limits of Chinese-Russian Partnership,” Survival (June-July 2009).
Rajan Menon, “Restrategize Policies on Nuclear Proliferation, Failing States, and Terrorism,” Asia Policy (Special Roundtable on Advising the New President) 7 (January 2009).
Rajan Menon, “NATO, RIP,” The American Interest 4, no. 2 (November-December 2008).
Rajan Menon, “Reorienting Japan,” Survival 50, no. 3 (June-July 2008).
Rajan Menon, “Changing of the Guard,” The National Interest, no. 93 (January-February 2008).
Rajan Menon and Enders S. Wimbush, “The US and Turkey: End of an Alliance?” Survival 49, no. 2 (Summer 2007).
Rajan Menon and Alexander J. Motyl, “The Myth of Russian Resurgence,” The American Interest 2, no. 4 (March-April 2007).
John B. Dunlop and Rajan Menon, “Chaos in the North Caucasus and Russia’s Future,” Survival (Summer 2006). Abridged revised version reprinted as “Chaos in the Caucasus,” Hoover Digest, no. 3 (Summer 2006).
Rajan Menon, “What Went Wrong,” The Boston Review 29, no. 6 (December 2004-January 2005).
Rajan Menon and Swati Pandey, “An Axis of Democracy? The Uncertain Future of Israeli-Indian Relations,” The National Interest (Summer 2005).
Rajan Menon, “An Old Solution for a New Problem?” Survival 46 (Winter 2004).
Rajan Menon, “Russia’s Quagmire: On Ending the Standoff in Chechnya,” Boston Review 29, no. 3-4 (Summer 2004).
Rajan Menon, “The Sick Man of Asia: Russia’s Endangered Far East,” The National Interest 73 (Fall 2003).
Rajan Menon, “The End of Alliances,” World Policy Journal 20, no. 2 (Summer 2003).
Rajan Menon, “The New Great Game in Central Asia,” Survival 45, no. 2 (Summer 2003).
Rajan Menon, “Another Year of Living Dangerously?” The National Interest 65 (Fall 2001).
Rajan Menon, “Structural Constraints on Russian Diplomacy,” ORBIS 45, no. 4 (Fall 2001).
Rajan Menon, “The Balance of Power and US Foreign Policy Interests in the Russian Far East,” National Bureau of Asian Research NBR Analysis 11, no. 5 (December 2000).
Rajan Menon and Enders S. Wimbush, “Asia in the Twenty-First Century,” The National Interest, no. 59 (Spring 2000).
Graham E. Fuller and Rajan Menon, “Russia’s Ruinous Chechen War,” Foreign Affairs 79, no. 2 (March-April 2000).
Rajan Menon and Hendrik Spruyt, “The Limits of Neorealism: Understanding Security in Central Asia,” Review of International Studies 25 (January 1999).
Rajan Menon, “The Strategic Convergence between Russia and China,” Survival 39, no. 2 (Summer 1997).
Rajan Menon, “The Perils of Perestroika: The Life and Legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev,” The Harriman Review 10, no. 1 (Spring 1997).
Rajan Menon, “Why Japan Will Re-Think Its Defense Strategy,” (Retitled by editor as “Japan: The Once and Future Superpower”), The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Special Issue) 53, no. 1 (January-February 1997).
Rajan Menon, “Japan-Russia Relations and Northeast Asian Security,” Survival 36, no. 2 (1996): 59-78.
Rajan Menon, “In the Shadow of the Bear: Security in Post-Soviet Central Asia,” International Security 20, no. 1 (Summer 1995).
Rajan Menon, “Revitalizing the United States-Japanese Alliance,” Pacific Review 7, no. 2 (1994).
Rajan Monen, “Post-Mortem: The Causes and Consequences of the Soviet Collapse,” The Harriman Review 7, no. 10-12 (November 1994).
Henri J. Barkey and Rajan Menon, “The Transformation of Central Asia: Implications for Regional and International Security,” Survival 34, no. 4 (Winter 1992-1993).
Rajan Menon, “The Future of Radical Third World States in the Post-Cold War Era,” PAWSS Perspectives 11, no. 2 (November 1991).
Rajan Menon, “Soviet-Japanese Relations: More of the Same?” Current History 90, no. 555 (April 1991).
Rajan Menon, “Gorbachev’s Japan Policy: Problems and Prospects,” Survival 23, no. 2 (March-April 1991).
Rajan Menon, “Soviet Policy in East Asia: Rethinking the Concept of Security,” La Politique Étrangère Soviétique à L’Aube des Années 90.
Rajan Menon and John R. Oneal, “Theories of Imperialism: The State of the Art as Reflected in Three Models,” Polity 19, no. 2 (Winter 1986).
Daniel Abele and Rajan Menon, “Security Dimensions of Soviet Territorial Disputes with China and Japan,” Journal of Northeast Asian Studies 8, no. 1 (Spring 1989).
Rajan Menon, “New Thinking and Northeast Asian Security,” Problems of Communism 38, no. 2-3 (March-June 1989).
Rajan Menon, “Soviet Arms Transfers to the Third World: Characteristics and Consequences,” Journal of International Affairs 40, no. 1 (Summer 1986).
Rajan Menon, “The Soviet Union in East Asia,” Current History 82, no. 486 (October 1983).
Rajan Menon, “The Soviet Union, the Arms Trade and the Third World,” Soviet Studies 34, no. 3 (July 1982).
Rajan Menon, “China and the Soviet Union in Asia,” Current History 80, no. 468 (October 1981).
Rajan Menon, “Soviet Policy in the Indian Ocean Region,” Current History 76, no. 446 (April 1979).
Rajan Menon, “The Soviet Union and India: A New Stage in Relations?” Asian Survey 18, no. 7 (July 1978).
Roger E. Kanet and Rajan Menon, “Die Sowjet Union and die Dritte Welt,” Osteuropa 27 (1977).
Book Chapters
Rajan Menon, “The Anatomy and Evolution of the India-Russia Relationship,” in David Malone, C. Raja Mohan, and Srinath Raghavan, eds., Oxford Handbook of Indian Foreign Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
Rajan Menon, “Central Asia in the 21st Century,” in Boris Rumer, ed., Central Asia: The View from Washington, Moscow, and Beijing (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2007).
Rajan Menon, “Greater Central Asia, Russia, and the West,” in Alexander J. Motyl, Blair A. Ruble, and Lilia Shevtsova, eds., Russia’s Reengagement with the West: Transformation and Integration in the Twenty-First Century (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2004).
Rajan Menon, “Leaders, Structural Conditions, and Russia’s Foreign Policy,” in Yitzhak Brudny, Jonathan Frankel, and Stefani Hoffman, eds., Restructuring Post-Communist Russia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Rajan Menon and Charles E. Ziegler, “The Balance of Power and US Interests in the Russian Far East,” in Judith Thornton and Charles E. Ziegler, eds., The Russian Far East: A Region at Risk (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2002).
Rajan Menon, “The Restless Region: The Brittle States of Central and South Asia,” in James Hoge, Jr. and Gideon Rose, eds., How Did this Happen? Terrorism and the New War (New York: Public Affairs, 2001).
Rajan Menon, “Russia,” in Richard J. Ellings and Aaron L. Friedberg, eds., Strategic Asia: Power and Purpose, 2001-2002 (Seattle, WA: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2001).
Rajan Menon, “Energy, Development and Conflict in the Caspian Sea Region,” in Robert Ebel and Rajan Menon, eds., Energy and Conflict in Central Asia and the Caucasus (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), 1-19.
Rajan Menon, “After Empire: Russia and the Southern ‘Near Abroad,'” in Michael Mandelbaum, ed., The New Russian Foreign Policy (New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1998).
Rajan Menon and Hendrik Spruyt, “State Formation, Conflict, and Conflict Resolution in Central Asia,” in Barnett R. Rubin and Jack Snyder, eds., Post-Soviet Order: Conflict and State Building (New York: Routledge, 1998).
Rajan Menon, “Russo-Japanese Relations, Northeast Asian Security, and US Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era,” in Stephen Blank and Alvin Z. Rubinstein, eds., Imperial Decline: Russia’s Changing Position in Asia (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997).
Rajan Menon, “Russia, America, and Northeast Asia after the Cold War,” in George Ginsburgs, Alvin Z. Rubinstein, and Oles M. Smolansky, eds., Russia and America: From Rivalry to Reconciliation (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993).
Rajan Menon, “On Assessing Soviet Power,” in Rajan Menon and Daniel N. Nelson, eds., Limits to Soviet Power (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1989).
Rajan Menon, “The Soviet Union in Northeast Asia,” in Carol R. Saivetz, ed., The Soviet Union in the Third World (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989).
Rajan Menon, “Military Power, Intervention and Soviet Policy towards the Third World,” in Roger E. Kanet, ed., Soviet Foreign Policy in the 1980s (Praeger Publishers, 1982).
Rajan Menon, “The Military and Security Dimension of Indo-Soviet Relations,” in Robert H Donaldson, ed., The Soviet Union in the Third World: Success and Failure (Westview Press, 1981).
Roger E. Kanet and Rajan Menon, “Soviet Policy Toward the Third World,” in Donald Kelley, ed., Soviet Politics in the Brezhnev Era (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1980).
Rajan Menon, “Humanitarian Intervention and US Power,” vol. 4 of David Engerman, Paul Max Friedman, and Melani McAlister, eds., Cambridge History of America and the World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, in press).
Other Articles, Testimony and Reports
Rajan Menon, “The realpolitik binding Israel’s hand: Netanyahu’s strikes on Iran were a breach of the IDF’s usual strategic calculus,” The Statesmen, 28 October 2024.
Rajan Menon, “Killing civilians is indefensible, whether done by Hamas or Israel,” The Guardian, 12 October 2023.
Rajan Menon, “Beyond Moral Condemnation,” Boston Review, 11 October 2023.
Rajan Menon and Daniel R DePetris, “Biden’s UN speech barely mentioned Russia and China. That’s no coincidence,” The Guardian, 9 October 2023.
Rajan Menon, “What changed in the India-U.S. relationship and where is it headed?,” Substack, 12 September 2023.
Rajan Menon, “Ukraine’s war at year 1.5: Its evolution and likely trajectory,” Substack, 23 August 2023.
Rajan Menon and Daniel R. DePetris, “Can China broker peace in Ukraine? Don’t rule it out,” The Guardian, 28 April 2023.
Rajan Menon, “Response: Russia Cannot Be Isolated Indefinitely,” Boston Review, 26 April 2023.
Rajan Menon, “How to End the War in Ukraine,” Boston Review, 26 April 2023.
Rajan Menon, “Ukraine’s Best Chance,” Foreign Affairs online, 12 April 2023.
Rajan Menon and Daniel R. DePetris, “What the United States Does in Ukraine Won’t Matter in Taiwan,” Foreign Policy online, 16 March 2023.
Rajan Menon and Daniel R. DePetris, “Europe Doesn’t Need the United States Anymore,” Foreign Policy online, 30 January 2023.
Rajan Menon, “Ukraine is Advancing, and Russia is Retreating, but President Zelensky Has a Big Problem,” The New York Times, 17 November 2022.
Rajan Menon and Daniel R DePetris, “We can’t keep treating talk of negotiations to end the Ukraine war as off limits,” The Guardian, 3 November 2022.
Rajan Menon, “Dispatch from Ukraine,” Boston Review, 21 September 2022.
Rajan Menon, “The US Cant Force the Rest of the World to Support Ukraine. Here’s Why,” Politico, 25 May 2022.
Rajan Menon, “NATO must help wind down this war – and stop stringing Ukraine along,” The Guardian, 13 April 2022.
Rajan Menon, “The End of the War in Afghanistan Is in Sight,” The Nation, 28 April 2021.
Rajan Menon, “The Wisdom of Leaving Afghanistan,” Foreign Policy online, 15 April 2021.
Rajan Menon, “Biden Must Rethink the American Way of War,” Foreign Policy online, 25 January 2021.
Rajan Menon, “Covid-19 and the Nightmare of Food Security,” The Nation, 29 December 2020.
Thomas Graham and Rajan Menon, “The Putin Problem,” Boston Review, 12 September 2017.
