Patrick James is Professor of International Relations and Director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Southern California (PhD, University of Maryland, College Park). James specializes in comparative and international politics. His interests at the international level include the causes, processes and consequences of conflict, crisis and war. With regard to domestic politics, his interests focus on Canada, most notably with respect to the constitutional dilemma.

James is the author of seventeen books and over one hundred articles and book chapters. Among his honors and awards are the Louise Dyer Peace Fellowship from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Milton R. Merrill Chair from Political Science at Utah State University, the Lady Davis Professorship of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Thomas Enders Professorship in Canadian Studies at the University of Calgary, the Senior Scholar award from the Canadian Embassy, Washington, DC, the Eaton Lectureship at Queens University in Belfast, and the Quincy Wright Scholar Award from the Midwest International Studies Association. He is a past president of the Midwest International Studies Association and the Iowa Conference of Political Scientists. James has been Distinguished Scholar in Foreign Policy Analysis for the International Studies Association (ISA), 2006-07 and will be Distinguished Scholar in Ethnicity, Nationalism and Migration for ISA in 2010. He is President, 2007-09, of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, and Vice-President (2008-09) of the ISA. James also served a five-year term as Editor of International Studies Quarterly.