Jordan Tama website

I am a Professor in the Department of Foreign Policy and Global Security at American University’s School of International Service. I am also a Principal of Bridging the Gap, Senior Nonresident Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.

My research examines the politics and processes of U.S. foreign and national security policy. My publications include five books: Bipartisanship and US Foreign Policy: Cooperation in a Polarized Age (Oxford University Press, 2024); Polarization and US Foreign Policy: When Politics Crosses the Water's Edge, edited with Gordon M. Friedrichs (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024); Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations, Sixth Edition, co-edited with James A. Thurber (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018); Terrorism and National Security Reform: How Commissions Can Drive Change During Crises (Cambridge University Press, 2011); and A Creative Tension: The Foreign Policy Roles of the President and Congress, co-authored with Lee H. Hamilton (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2002).

I have also authored numerous articles in highly-regarded journals, magazines, and newspapers; published many policy reports with leading think tanks; delivered talks in a dozen countries; and conducted scores of interviews with major media outlets.

I am a leader in efforts to connect scholars to policy makers and convey policy-relevant research to public audiences. This work has included the convening of over a dozen Bridging the Gap workshops that have brought scholars and policy officials together to exchange knowledge on important international issues, as well as the development of a major research translation initiative at American University.

I have been elected as President of the National Capital Area Political Science Association, elected as President of the Foreign Policy Analysis Section of the International Studies Association, and selected as a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

I have served too in policy roles outside academia, including as a senior foreign policy aide in the U.S. House of Representatives, a foreign policy speechwriter, and a counterterrorism and intelligence policy advisor on Barack Obama's first presidential campaign.

My research and efforts to connect research and policy have been supported by the American Political Science Association, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, IBM Center for the Business of Government, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, National Science Foundation, Raymond Frankel Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and Woodrow Wilson Center.

I received a B.A. from Williams College, and received an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.