International governance of emerging technologies, diplomatic practice, institutional design, technology regulation
Professor Robert F. Trager is Co-Director of the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, International Governance Lead at the Centre for the Governance of AI, and Senior Research Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. He is a recognized expert in the international governance of emerging technologies, diplomatic practice, institutional design, and technology regulation. He regularly advises government and industry leaders on these topics. Dr. Trager has written two books and numerous articles in leading social science journals, including the American Political Science Review, International Organization, International Security, Foreign Affairs and many others. His award-winning research has been covered in popular press outlets like the New York Times, Economist, Financial Times, Washington Post, NPR, Fortune, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs. From 2017-2021, he was the Assistant Director for Research of the Burkle Center for International Relations. He was Associate Editor of one of the international relations field’s leading journals, the International Studies Quarterly, and sat on the boards of the Institute for Global Cooperation and Conflict, the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab, and the Burkle Center. Before moving to the University of Oxford, Dr. Trager was Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles and held faculty positions at Yale University and an Olin Fellowship at Harvard University.
– Oxford University, Oxford, UK
– Co-Director of the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, International Governance Lead at the Centre for the Governance of AI 2021-present
– Senior Research Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government 2021- present
– University of California, Los Angeles, CA:
– Assistant Director for Research of the Burkle Center for International Relations, 2017-2021
– University of California, Los Angeles, CA:
– Associate Professor of Political Science, 2013 – 2017
– Assistant Professor of Political Science, 2006 – 2013
– Yale University, New Haven, CT
– Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science, 2015 – 2016
– Oxford University, Oxford, UK
– Fellow in Formal Analysis and International Relations, 2005-2006
– Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
– John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies Pre-Doctoral Fellow in International Security, 2004-2005
– Columbia University, Department of Political Science
– PhD. with Distinction, 2007; MPhil., 2002
– Coursework includes advanced, graduate-level microeconomic theory, mathematics and statistics
– Specializations: International relations, political economy, formal analysis
– Dissertation: Diplomatic Calculus in Anarchy: The Construction and Consequences of the Space of
Intentions
– London School of Economics, Faculty of International Relations
– MSc. with Distinction, 1997
– Specializations: International monetary system, international finance, politics of international trade
– Thesis Topic: Liberalizing financial services in developing countries
– Middlebury College, B.A., magna cum laude, May 1995
– Major: Philosophy Minor: Political Science
– Thesis: Characterizing Difference: Holism, Social Construction and the Precond
– Computing Power and the Governance of Artificial Intelligence, G Sastry, L Heim, H Belfield, M Anderljung, M Brundage, J Hazell, 2024
– Leader age and international conflict: A regression discontinuity analysis, A Bertoli, A Dafoe, R Trager, Journal of Peace Research, 2023
– Towards publicly accountable frontier llms, M Anderljung, E Smith, J O’Brien, L Soder, B Bucknall, E Bluemke, Socially Responsible Language Modelling Research, 2023
– Towards publicly accountable frontier LLMs: Building an external scrutiny ecosystem under the ASPIRE framework, M Anderljung, ET Smith, J O’Brien, L Soder, B Bucknall, E Bluemke, 2023
– STRUCTURED ACCESS FOR THIRD-PARTY RESEARCH ON FRONTIER AI MODELS: INVESTIGATING RESEARCHERS’MODEL ACCESS REQUIREMENTS, BS Bucknall, RF Trager, 2023
– International governance of civilian AI: A jurisdictional certification approach, R Trager, B Harack, A Reuel, A Carnegie, L Heim, L Ho, S Kreps, R Lall, 2023
– Uncertainty, information, and risk in international technology races, N Emery-Xu, A Park, R Trager, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2023
– Confidence-building measures for artificial intelligence: Workshop proceedings, S Shoker, A Reddie, S Barrington, R Booth, M Brundage, H Chahal, 2023
– International institutions for advanced AI, L Ho, J Barnhart, R Trager, Y Bengio, M Brundage, A Carnegie, 2023
– Frontier AI regulation: Managing emerging risks to public safety, M Anderljung, J Barnhart, J Leung, A Korinek, C O’Keefe, J Whittlestone, 2023
– Industrial policy for advanced ai: Compute pricing and the safety tax, M Jensen, N Emery-Xu, R Trager, 2023
– Frontier AI Regulation: Managing Emerging Risks to Public Safety.” arXiv, M Anderljung, J Barnhart, A Korinek, J Leung, C O’Keefe, J Whittlestone, 2023
– The Suffragist Peace: How Women’s Votes Lead to Fewer Wars, RF Trager, J Barnhart, Oxford University Press, 2023
– The Suffragist Peace: How Women Shape the Politics of War, J Barnhart, RF Trager
Oxford University Press, 2023
– Safety Not Guaranteed: International Races for Risky Technologies, E Stafford, RF Trager, A Dafoe, 2022
– How Women Shape the Course of War: Women’s Suffrage and the Election of 1916, J Barnhart, RF Trager
Security Studies 31 (4), 703-735, 2022
– Deliberating Autonomous Weapons, R Trager, Issues in Science and Technology XXXVIII, 2022
– The IAEA Solution: Knowledge Sharing to Prevent Dangerous Technology Races, E Stafford, RF Trager, 2022
– Biodesign Challenge, RF Trager, Issues in Science and Technology 38 (4), 6-8, 2022
– Killer robots are here—and we need to regulate them, RF Trager, LM Luca, Foreign Policy, 2022
– The Security Governance Challenge of Emerging Technologies, RF Trager, Orbis 66 (4), 536-550, 2022
– Concessions for Concession’s Sake: Injustice, Indignation, and the Construction of Intractable Conflict in Israel–Palestine, P Assouline, R Trager, Journal of Conflict Resolution 65 (9), 1489-1520, 2021
– The Offense-Defense Balance and The Costs of Anarchy: When Welfare Improves Under Offensive Advantage, RD Bressler, RF Trager, A Dafoe, 2021
– The prejudice first model and foreign policy values: Racial and religious bias among conservatives and liberals, R Hanania, R Trager, European Journal of International Relations 27 (1), 204-231, 2021
– The suffragist peace, JN Barnhart, RF Trager, EN Saunders, A Dafoe, International Organization 74 (4), 633-670, 2020
– The prejudice first model and foreign policy values: racial and religious bias among conservatives and liberals, RF Trager, R Hanania, 2020
– The Suffragist Peace, Joslyn N. Barnhart, Robert F. Trager, 633, EN Saunders, A Dafoe, A Serdaru, V Pouliot, E van der Maat, International Organization 74 (4), 2020
– Things you can see from there you can’t see from here: blind spots in the American perspective in IR and their effects, DH Levin, RF Trager, Journal of Global Security Studies 4 (3), 345-357, 2019
– Is there a war party? Party change, the left–right divide, and international conflict, A Bertoli, A Dafoe, RF Trager, Journal of Conflict Resolution 63 (4), 950-975, 2019
– Autonomous Weapons And Coercive Threats, C Sterbenz, R Trager, 2019
– Cultures of Concession and Conflict: How the Material and Cultural Context Shapes Crisis Bargaining, CM Giddings, RF Trager, Working Paper, 2018
– War, Public Preferences, and Survey Experiments, S Wolford, R McManus, P Arena, M Gottfried, R Trager, Oct 2017
– Diplomacy: communication and the origins of international order, RF Trager, Cambridge University Press, 2017
– Diplomacy, RF Trager, (No Title), 2017
– Virtue in our own eyes: How moral identity defines the politics of force, R Hanania, RF Trager, Unpublished manuscript. Available at: http://www. roberttrager. com …, 2017
– A preference for war: How fairness and rhetoric influence leadership incentives in crises, MS Gottfried, RF Trager, International Studies Quarterly 60 (2), 243-257, 2016
– The diplomacy of war and peace, RF Trager, Annual Review of Political Science 19, 205-228, 2016
– Topology of a Gordian Knot: Procedural Justice, Affective Response and the Construction of Intractable Conflict in Israel-Palestine, P Assouline, RF Trager, 2016
– Topology of a Gordian Knot: Honor and Endorsement in the Construction of Intractable Conflict in Palestine, P Assouline, RF Trager, Unpublished manuscript, 2015
– Nuclear Stability and Conventional Conflict, M Kroenig, RF Trager, 2015
– Diplomatic signaling among multiple states, RF Trager, The Journal of Politics 77 (3), 635-647, 2015
– How the scope of a demand conveys resolve, RF Trager, International Theory 5 (3), 414-445, 2013
– Aggressive Rhetoric Paves the Road to War, MS Gottfried, RF Trager, 2012
– Long-term consequences of aggressive diplomacy: European relations after Austrian Crimean War threats, RF Trager, Security Studies 21 (2), 232-265, 2012
– How the Scope of a Demand Conveys Resolve: New Evidence from 1938-39, R Trager, APSA 2012 Annual Meeting Paper, 2012
– Multidimensional diplomacy, RF Trager, International Organization 65 (3), 469-506, 2011
– The political costs of crisis bargaining: Presidential rhetoric and the role of party, RF Trager, L Vavreck, American Journal of Political Science 55 (3), 526-545, 2011
– American Journal of Political Science, RF Trager, L Vavreck, 2011
– Summer 20, T Allee, C Peinhardt, B Coggins, RF Trager, KW Ramsay, G Biglaiser, …, 2011
– Diplomatic calculus in anarchy: How communication matters, RF Trager, American Political Science Review 104 (2), 347-368, 2010
– The Construction of Threats: An Empirical Analysis of Sources of State Inferences, R Trager, APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper, 2010
– The Logic of the Stability-Instability Paradox, B O’Neill, R Trager, APSA 2010 Annual Meeting Paper, 2010
– MANAGING THE MADDENING CROWD: PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL FOLLOWING INTERNATIONAL CRISES, RF Trager, L Vavreck, 2009
– Taking a Chance on War, R Trager, Foreign Policy, 88, 2008
– Recovering Tarnished Reputations in International Politics, K Kagotani, RF Trager, Unpublished Manuscript
3, 2008
– FANATICISM AND WMD, RF Trager, DP Zagorcheva, 2007
– Diplomatic Calculus in Anarchy: The Construction and Consequences of the Space of Intentions, RF Trager, Columbia University, 2007
– Deterring terrorism: It can be done, RF Trager, DP Zagorcheva, International Security 30 (3), 87-123, 2005
– Beyond Binary Deterrence: Why and When the Risk of Provocation Enhances Credibility, RF Trager, 2004
– Countering Global Terrorism: Why the Death of Deterrence Has Been Exaggerated, RF Trager, DP Zagorcheva, Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association. Montreal, 2004
– Valence Politics in International Crises, RF Trager, Unpublished Manuscript, Columbia University. Accessed April 16, 2018, 2004
– Dissertation Proposal: The Role of Diplomacy in Power Politics, RF Trager, 2002
– Political Philosophy: What It Is and Why It Matters, TS Clark, JK Staton, M Camerlo, A Pérez-Liñán, PJ Clouser McCann, …, The University of Chicago Press
– Structured Access for Third-Party Safety Research on Frontier AI Models Investigating Researchers’ Model Access Requirements, B Bucknall, T Shevlane, R Trager, Working Paper. Forthcoming
– Fairness and Finance in Global Environmental Policy, BL Friscia, RF Trager, 2007
– Springer Handbook of Lasers and Optics, F Träger
– Fairness or Finance: Popular Support for Global Environmental Cooperation, BL Friscia, RF Trager
– International Theory, M Kleine, E Aloyo, A Lanoszka, RF Trager, D Bray
