Lisa A. Baglione, PhD

• ScB in Applied Mathematics-Economics, Brown University
• MA and PhD in Government, Cornell University

Saint Joseph’s University is Dr. Baglione’s first and only long-time academic position, and she started here back in 1992 after graduating with her Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. In her last two years at Cornell, she worked as a tutor at Cornell-in-Washington, where she mentored students who were interning three days a week and writing a thesis for the other two. That experience made her a true believer in internships and experiential learning, as well as the value of research-paper writing for developing many higher level skills that translate well to all kinds of settings. Prior to Cornell, she worked as a computer programmer for a year after her graduation from Brown University where she majored in Applied Mathematics and Economics and spent a lot of time at the piano and singing in chorus.

• Writing a Research Paper in Political Science: A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods, 5th Edition (Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ/Sage, 2027).
• Understanding Comparative Politics: An Inclusive Approach (Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ/Sage, 2025).
• "Post-Soviet Russia at Twenty-Five: Understanding the Dynamics and Consequences of Its Authoritarianism," Polity 48 4 (October 2016): 580:611.
• see c.v. for earlier works
• Interviews/Media/Popular Articles
• Panelist, Carfagno Lecture Series, World Affairs Council of Philadelphia at Saint Joseph’s University. Part of a discussion of Ambassador Michael McFaul’s lecture “Is the Bear Back in the Woods, and How Should the Eagle Respond?” (December 5, 2018).
• Featured guest, “What’s Happening with Russia and the United States?” Kathleen Dunn Show (1-hour, radio, call-in), Wisconsin Public Radio (November 30, 2016) http://www.wpr.org/shows/whats-happening-russia-and-united-states.
• “Putin’s Pattern of Violence,” In All Things Blog on America: The National Catholic Review online (January 22, 2016) http://americamagazine.org/content/all-things/putins-pattern-violence.
• “Remembering Cold War Lessons: ‘Something There Is that Doesn’t Love a Wall,’” The World Post – Huffington Post Blog (September 23, 2015) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-baglione/remembering-cold-war_b_8173646.html.
• “Don’t Feed the Bear: Crafting an Effective Response to a Newly Assertive Russia,” America: The National Catholic Review 211, no.15 (November 17, 2014): 23-29. http://americamagazine.org/issue/don%E2%80%99t-feed-bear.
• Interview with Wisconsin Public Radio's "Central Time" on the origins of the Sochi Olympics terror threat, the steps to thwart any attack, and Putin’s ambitions regarding the Games (February 6, 2014). http://www.wpr.org/sochi-games-loom-so-do-terror-threats
• Interview with Wisconsin Public Radio's "Central Time" on the diplomatic solution to the Syrian Crisis and Russian President Putin's NYT Op-Ed (September 14, 2013). http://wpr.org/people/lisa-baglione.
• E-mail (written) interview with Colombian journalist Nathan Jaccard for the weekly Semana and then quoted in the article "Vladimir Putin--El Grande" http://www.semana.com/mundo/articulo/vladimir-el-grande/358357-3, posted on September 21, 2013.

Book Reviews

• Review of Swati Parashar, J.Ann Tickner, and Jacqui True, Revisiting Gendered States: Feminist Imaginings of the State in International Relations in Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy (in progress).
• Review of Raymond A. Zilinskas and Philippe Mauger, Biosecurity in Putin’s Russia (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2018) in Slavic Review, https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2019.80.
• “Condoleeza Rice’s Recipe for Democratic Success,” in America: The National Catholic Review 217, no. 12 (November 27, 2017): 52 https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2017/11/13/condoleeza-rices-recipe-democratic-success.
• “Music Key to a Cold War Thaw,” Review of Nigel Cliff, The Van Cliburn Story: How One Man and his Piano Transformed the Cold War,” in America: Spring Literary Review 2017 216, no. 9 (April 17, 2017): 46-47, http://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2017/04/23/music-van-cliburn-was-key-cold-war-thaw.
• Review of Valerie M. Hudson and Patricia Leidl, The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015) in Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy 38, no. 4 (October-December 2017): 564-65 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2017.1309233.
• Review of Michael O. Slobodchikoff, Building Hegemonic Order Russia’s Way: Order, Stability, and Predictability in the Post-Soviet Space (New York, NY: Lexington Books, 2014) in Slavic Review, 74, no. 2 (Summer 2016): 534-535.
• “A Road to Terror,” Review of Masha Gessen, The Brothers: A Road to an American Tragedy (New York: Riverhead Books, 2015) in America: The National Catholic Review 213, no. 5 (August 31-September 7, 2015) http://americamagazine.org/issue/culture/road-terror.
• “The Power of Music: Leningrad’s Triumph over Twin Evils,” Review of Brian Moynahan, Leningrad: Siege and Symphony (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2014) in America: The National Catholic Review 213, no. 3 (August 3-10, 2015): 33-35, http://americamagazine.org/issue/culture/power-music.
• Review of Masha Gessen, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot (New York: Penguin Group, 2014) in Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy, 36:1–3, 2015, DOI: 10.1080/1554477X.2015.1050913.
• “Revolution Rock,” Review of Masha Gessen, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot (New York: Penguin Group, 2014) in America: The National Catholic Review, vol. 210, iss. 20 (June 23, 2014): 34-35, http://americamagazine.org/issue/culture/revolution-rock.
• Review of Marie Mendras, Russian Politics: Paradox of a Weak State (New York: Columbia University Press) in Slavic Review, vol. 73, no. 3 (Fall 2014): 687-688, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5612/slavicreview.73.3.687.
• Review of Beverley Baines, Daphne Barak-Erez, and Tsvi Kahana, eds. Feminist Constitutionalism: Global Perspectives (New York: Cambridge, 2012), in Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy 36:1–3, 2015, DOI: 10.1080/1554477X.2015.1050919.

Dr. Baglione is the winner of SJU Faculty Merit Awards for Research (2), Teaching (2), and Advising (1). She has also won the Lindback Award for Excellent in Teaching. As a graduate student, she was selected to participate in an SSRC Workshop on New Approaches to Studying Soviet Politics (June 1990), and she won an award from the Institute for the Study of World Politics and the Hubert H. Humphrey Doctoral Fellowship from the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. During college, she also received a very generous scholarship from the Disabled American Veterans.

Dr. Baglione’s current research (which she will pursue with more focus in a Spring of 2027 sabbatical semester) explores the Clinton Administration's Russia policy, particularly in the early 1990s. Despite its stated commitment to democracy promotion, the U.S. ignored very clear signs of the Russian state’s early authoritarian turn and remained supportive rhetorically and in general policy terms. While scholars have noted that the American agenda at the time was crowded with securing Europe and NATO expansion as part of its security and liberalization strategy for non-Soviet former Warsaw Pact members, this inattention to Russia’s status is rather puzzling. While some might say that Americans were convinced of their superior power and didn’t need to worry about Russian aggression in Europe, that argument seems to be in conflict with this emphasis on integrating the eager Central and East Europeans into the Euro-Atlantic Alliance. Dr. Baglione’s study will examine, particularly, how and why the administration reacted as it did to the dramatic events of later 1993 and 1994. At least three distinct events might have warranted a recalibration toward Russia. These include the Yeltsin Administration’s:

1. disbanding and attack on the Russian parliament (September-October 1993);
2. promulgation of a super-presidential constitution and the holding of a simultaneous referendum on that document and elections for the new legislative offices. The Administration was aware that these contests were not free or fair (October-December 1993);
3. attack on the Russian republic of Chechnya and reports of horrific violence toward civilians, who were Russian citizens.

This research speaks to theoretical debates in American foreign policy while also helping to unearth new materials in the archives. In addition, it helps explore the extent to which American elites have understood and prioritized democracy, providing insight not only on the Russian case of the 1990s, but also raising questions about the developments in that relationship in the early 2000s and in the U.S.’s own self-perception then and now.

In addition to this project, Dr. Baglione pays close attention to information related to three previous and ongoing research endeavors. First, she follows the Russo-Ukraine War and Russian domestic politics and finds that the new developments related to this conflict, the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, and A.I. have potentially great implications for nuclear proliferation as well as arms control and other security-focused negotiations. Second, she continues to follow scholarship on the pedagogy of research, and writing, particularly in this age of A.I.. These efforts enhance her efforts to update Writing a Research Paper, now in edition 5, and to more effectively teach research and writing to SJU students. Third, Dr. Baglione hopes to be revising Understanding Comparative Politics (2025) in the near future. Therefore, she must stay abreast of broad conceptual and empirical developments in comparative politics, with a particular focus on the ways that gender and identity factors play out within the domestic politics of the cases she presents in that book (U.K., Russia, China, Mexico, Egypt, and NIgeria).