Ahsan Butt

Ahsan Butt

Ahsan Butt

Associate Professor

Ethnicity and nationalism, international security, international relations theory, and South Asia

Ahsan Butt is an Assistant Professor of Government and Politics in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University. He received a PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 2012 and a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2006.  

Specializing in international relations, his research and teaching generally focus on ethnicity and nationalism, security, international relations theory, and South Asia. He has several research projects in progress, including a book project, based on his dissertation, which explains the variation in state violence against secessionists by pointing to the external security implications of secessionist movements. He is also currently working on a pair of research articles. The first is on the relationship between conventional military postures and nuclear acquisition in South Asia. The second investigates the deleterious effects of the spread of nationalism from the 19th century onwards on postcolonial states’ internal and external security. He also has a forthcoming article in International Organization on anarchy and hierarchy in IR theory.

His research has received generous support from the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Mellon Foundation.