Associate Professor of Political Science and Engineering Systems

Kenneth A. Oye holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor of Political Science and of Engineering Systems at MIT. After serving two terms as Director of the MIT Center for International Studies (1992-2000), he is now forming a Political Economy and Technology Policy Program within the Center. He has taught on the faculties of the Kennedy School at Harvard University, the University of California, Princeton University, and Swarthmore College. He holds a BA in Economics and Political Science with Highest Honors from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D in Political Science with the Chase Dissertation Prize from Harvard University.

He has published six books and numerous short studies in international relations, political economy, and science and technology policy. His books include Economic Discrimination and Political Exchange, Cooperation Under Anarchy, and a four volume series on Carter, Reagan and Bush administration foreign policies. His articles examine international export financing issues, regulatory diversity and trade, and a range of science and technology issues. He is now completing books on environmental regulation and trade and on uses of compensation in political economy. He has launched two projects that apply theories of political economy to problems of science and technology policy. With Lawrence McCray, he is studying knowledge assessment in areas marked by controversy over scientific issues. With Alliance for Global Sustainability and Finnish Environmental Institute support, he is examining the effects of environmental, health and safety regulations on the competitive position of firms.

Kenneth Oye's teaching includes courses on Science, Technology and Public Policy, a Research Seminar in International Relations, and a course on the International Political Economy of Advanced Industrial Countries. He received the 1998 Graduate Student Council Outstanding Teaching Award in Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts and the 2003 Technology and Policy Program Faculty Appreciation Award. Together with Dan Hastings, Dava Newman, and Merritt Roe Smith, Kenneth Oye serves as co-PI on an NSF Integrated Graduate Research and Training program on "Assessing the Implications of Emerging Technologies."

Kenneth Oye has served as a consultant to the U.S. Trade Policy Coordinating Committee on export financing issues (2002-2003), as a member of the Advisory Committee to the US Export-Import Bank (1999-2001), as Director of the Seminar XXI Program (1994-2000), as an Editor of the journal World Politics (1983-87), a Trustee of the World Peace Foundation (1997-present), and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been a co-PI on a MacArthur Foundation Joint Harvard-MIT Transnational Security Program and on research projects on economic and environmental issues funded by the Alliance for Global Sustainability, the Center for Global Partnership, NEDO, MISTRA, and the Institute for International Economics.

News and announcements:

Hurricane Symposium zeroes in on response (features ESD Professors Larson, Oye, and Sheffi. Moderated by Prof. Hastings.) Click here for article and here for online video. (October 9, 2005)