Robert Gilpin

Robert Gilpin (; July 2, 1930 – June 20, 2018) was an American political scientist. He was Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University where he held the Eisenhower professorship. Gilpin was an influential figure in the fields of international relations theory and international political economy. A "soft" realist, Gilpin argued that international economic affairs reflected state power, and that states' security interests shaped international economic cooperation. He was a proponent of what would become known as Hegemonic stability theory, the notion that the international system is most likely to be stable in the presence of a hegemon. Biography Gilpin received his B.A. from the University of Vermont in 1952 and his M.S. from Cornell University in 1954. Following three years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, Gilpin completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, earning his doctorate in 1960. He joined the Princeton faculty in 1962 and earned tenure in 1967. He was a faculty associate of the Center of International Studies, and the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination. Gilpin was a Guggenheim fellow in 1969, a Rockefeller fellow from 1967 to 1968 and again from 1976 to 1977, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the American Political Science Association for which he served as vice president from 1984 to 1985, and he was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Early in his career, Gilpin focused on conflict and national security, in particular nuclear weapons policy. Over time, his focus shifted to international political economy.