Christopher Darnton, Ph.D. - Department of National Security Affairs
Associate Professor
Expertise: Latin America, International Relations, Research Methods
Christopher Darnton is an Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and an affiliate of Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC).
His work examines the domestic and bureaucratic politics of foreign policy in the Americas, particularly related to enduring rivalries and regional wars; conflict resolution and public diplomacy; developing-country diplomacy in the Cold War and in contemporary great power competition; and the refinement of archival and case-study research methods in security studies.
He is the author of Rivalry and Alliance Politics in Cold War Latin America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014) and is currently writing a book on the hundred-year history of US security cooperation in the Americas.
He received a Ph.D. (2009) and MA (2004) in Politics from Princeton University, and a BA in International Relations (2002) from the University of Southern California. Prior to arriving at NPS, he taught at Reed College and the Catholic University of America.
Selected Recent Publications:
“The Provenance Problem: Research Methods and Ethics in the Age of WikiLeaks,” American Political Science Review (forthcoming)
“Public Diplomacy and International Conflict Resolution: A Cautionary Case from Cold War South America,” Foreign Policy Analysis 16:1 (January 2020)
“Archives and Inference: Documentary Evidence in Case Study Research and the Debate over U.S. Entry into World War II,” International Security 42:3 (Winter 2017/18)
“The Rise of Brazil: Concepts and Comparisons,” in Routledge Handbook of Latin American Security, ed. David Mares and Arie Kacowicz (Routledge, 2016).
“Whig History, Periodization, and International Cooperation in the Southern Cone,” International Studies Quarterly 58:3 (September 2014)
NPS Courses:
NS 3024 Introduction to International Relations
NS 3030 American National Security Policy
NS 3520 Latin American International Relations
NS 3578 Society, Politics, and Security in Brazil