Alexander Cooley is a scholar of international relations whose research examines global authoritarianism, transnational kleptocracy, and the changing international order. His regional expertise centers on Eurasia, particularly Central Asia and the Caucasus, where he has studied how external powers shape governance, sovereignty, and political development in the post-Soviet states.

He is the Claire Tow Professor of Political Science at Barnard College (on leave Spring 2026). At Columbia, he served as Director of the Harriman Institute for the Study of Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe from 2015 to 2021, and as Barnard's Vice Provost for Research and Academic Centers from 2022 to 2025. He currently chairs the Faculty Advisory Board of the Columbia Global Center in Athens and serves on the executive committees of the Harriman Institute and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, as well as the Committee on Global Thought.

Beyond the Columbia community, he serves as Acting Chair of the American University in Central Asia Foundation. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow for Eurasian Affairs at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a Nonresident Fellow at the Kennan Institute, and an Academy Adjunct Fellow at the Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership at Chatham House.

Cooley is the author or co-author of eight books, including Dictators without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia (Yale 2017, with John Heathershaw), Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford 2020, with Daniel Nexon), and Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics (Oxford 2025, with Alexander Dukalskis).

His commentary regularly appears in Foreign Affairs and other current affairs publications and he has testified before the United States Congress and the Helsinki Commission. His research has been supported by the Open Society Foundations, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He holds an MA and PhD from Columbia University.

Books

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Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics (Oxford 2025)

Undermining American Hegemony: Goods Substitution in World Politics (Cambridge 2021)

Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford 2020)

Dictators Without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia (Yale 2017)

Ranking the World: Grading states as a Tool of Global Governance (Cambridge 2015)

Great Games, Local Rules: The New Great Power Contest in Central Asia (Oxford 2015)

Featured News

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Selected recent commentary, analysis, and interviews.

Review of Dictating the Agenda Lawfare, October 15, 2025. Moises Naim reviews Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/authoritarian-soft-power

Even in Retreat, America Will Remain Globally Consequential Chicago Council on Global Affairs, December 16, 2025 Analysis on America's evolving global role.

Russia's Hidden Empire Foreign Affairs, April 16, 2025 How Moscow has rekindled its influence across the post-Soviet space.

Trump's Antiliberal Order Foreign Affairs, January/February 2025 With Daniel Nexon. How "America First" undercuts America's strategic advantage.

Authoritarian States Have Powerful Reach—Even in Ireland Irish Examiner, October 9, 2025 With Alexander Dukalskis. How authoritarian influence extends into open democracies.

Global Corruption Would Be Impossible Without Help from the West Promarket, September 15, 2025 On the role of Western enablers in sustaining global kleptocracy.

Alexander Cooley in L'Express L'Express, May 11, 2025 Interview on Russia's hidden influence in the post-Soviet space. (In French)

Delphi Economic Forum: Responses to Polycrises April 2025 Panel discussion on navigating overlapping global crises. (Video)