Experts

John M. Owen IV

Faculty Senior Fellow

Fast Facts

  • Recipient of fellowships from the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, and the Center of International Studies at Princeton
  • Member of the editorial board of International Security
  • 2015 winner, Humboldt Research Prize (Germany)
  • Expertise on war, regime change, religion, democracy and the international order, and international security

Areas Of Expertise

  • Foreign Affairs
  • American Defense and Security
  • War and Terrorism
  • Religion

John M. Owen is a Miller Center faculty senior fellow and Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Professor of Politics. His newest book, The Ecology of Nations: American Democracy in a Fragile World Order (Yale University Press, 2023), received the 2025 Grawemeyer Award for World Order from the University of Louisville. He is also the author of Liberal Peace, Liberal War: American Politics and International Security (Cornell University Press, 1997) and The Clash of Ideas in World Politics: Transnational Networks, States, and Regime Change 1510-2010 (Princeton University Press, 2010). He is co-editor of Religion, the Enlightenment, and the New Global Order (Columbia University Press, 2011).

Owen has published work in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, International Politics, International Organization, Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics, The National Interest, and several edited volumes. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, and the Center of International Studies at Princeton. His research has been funded by the MacArthur, Earhart, and Donchian Foundations. He received a Humboldt Research Prize in 2015. He is a member of the editorial boards of International Security and Security Studies and a faculty fellow at the UVA Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. 

John M. Owen IV News Feed

What shapes world order—military power, or the battle of ideas? In this episode, we speak with Dr. John M. Owen IV, winner of the prestigious 2025 Grawemeyer Award, about the enduring impact of political ideologies on international affairs. As a leading scholar at the University of Virginia, Dr. Owen has shown how ideas—liberalism, fascism, communism—spread across borders and reshape alliances. He discusses how ideological rivalries still define the global balance of power and what lessons we can learn to build a more stable, just international system.
John Owen National Champion Radio
University of Virginia professor John Owen IV is the winner of the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for World Order for his book, "Ecology of Nations: American Democracy in a Fragile World Order."
John Owen Louisville Public Media
The Miller Center hosted a conversation with author and journalist Jonathan Rauch titled “Exploring democracy and Christianity” on Tuesday. Rauch unpacked the arguments in his newest book, “Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy,” which posits that democracy and robust religion need one another, but that Christianity is failing to serve its moral, counter-cultural purpose in American civic life.
John Owen The Cavalier Daily
Join us for a conversation about the relationship between democracy and Christianity with author and journalist Jonathan Rauch and UVA faculty Colin Bird and Laurie Maffly-Kipp, moderated by Miller Center Senior Faculty Fellow John Owen.
John Owen Miller Center Presents
As the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches, Miller Center faculty and senior fellows discuss President Trump’s foreign policy and national security promises, with a particular focus on Ukraine, China, and the Middle East.
Allan C. Stam, Stephen D. Mull, Brantly Womack, Dale Copeland, Jeffrey W. Legro, John M. Owen IV, Mara Rudman, Scott Miller, and William J. Antholis Miller Center Presents
The world’s two great powers, China and the United States, are competing over international order. This article’s ecological theory of competition over international institutions argues that: (1) international institutions select for one regime type over alternatives; (2) the typical government believes that it is a core interest to preserve its regime type; and (3) great powers can shape international institutions to select for their own regime type. The article demonstrates these dynamics in great power relations in the interwar period (1919–1939).
John Owen International Security