Arne Westad

Odd Arne Westad is Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs. He was the director of the International Security Studies Program (ISS) between 2021 and 2024, which housed the NSP. He is a scholar of modern international and global history, with a specialization in the Cold War, China, and East Asia. He joined the faculty at Yale after teaching at the London School of Economics, where he was School Professor of International History, and at Harvard University, where he was the S.T. Lee Professor of US-Asia Relations. A historian of the Cold War era, Professor Westad has published 16 books that explore Sino-Russian relations and the global strategy of modern China. At Yale, he teaches in the History Department and at the Jackson School, including an undergraduate lecture course, “The Twentieth Century: A World History,” and a graduate seminar co-taught with Paul Kennedy, “Relations of the Great Powers Since 1890.”

Bio recorded December 16, 2024