Ethan Kapstein

Class of Fall 2026

Executive Director, Empirical Studies of Conflict Project, School of Public and International Affairs

Princeton University

The Future of European Security

For decades, Western Europe was a zone of relative peace, and Europeans were generally confident that they could live safely under the security umbrella provided by NATO and the United States. Now that many in Europe are doubting the American commitment to the continent’s defense, questions arise as to how to plan future military strategies and weapons procurements for Europe. At the Academy, Kapstein is analyzing the ongoing debates over European defense policy, with the objective of developing an empirically grounded understanding of the direction that policy is likely to take, given spending and acquisition priorities.

Ethan Kapstein is Executive Director of the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and Lecturer with Rank of Professor. Kapstein previously held endowed chairs at Arizona State University, University of Texas at Austin, and INSEAD. He has also served as a Principal Administrator at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. His most recent books include Political Economy of Military Alliances (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming), Exporting Capitalism: Private Enterprise and US Foreign Policy (Harvard, 2022), Seeds of Stability: Land Reform and US Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 2017), and, with Josh Busby, AIDS Drugs for All: Social Movements and Market Transformations (Cambridge, 2013), which won the 2014 Don K. Price Award for Best Book in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy from the American Political Science Association. He has also written scores of articles for academic and policy journals, and has conducted economics research in Afghanistan, the Philippines, and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Kapstein is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has held research grants from the Department of Defense/Minerva Research Initiative, the World Bank, and from private foundations.