Biography

Scott Radnitz is the Herbert J. Ellison Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington (UW). His interests include authoritarianism, informality, identity, conspiracy theories, and disinformation, with an emphasis on the post-Soviet region. He is the author of two books: Revealing Schemes: The Politics of Conspiracy in Russia and the Post-Soviet Region (Oxford University Press, 2021) and Weapons of the Wealthy: Predatory Regimes and Elite-Led Protests in Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2010). Most recently, he co-edited Enemies Within: The Global Politics of Fifth Columns (Oxford University Press, 2022).

He has published articles in journals including Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, International Studies Quarterly, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Democracy, Political Geography, Political Communication, Journal of Peace Research, and Post-Soviet Affairs. Policy commentary has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, The Guardian, Slate, and the Washington Post.

Professor Radnitz is an associate editor of Communist and Post-Communist Studies, a faculty member at UW’s Center for an Informed Public, and a member of the Program on New Approaches to Research and Security (PONARS) in Eurasia. He received his B.A. at UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At the Robert Schuman Centre, he will be conducting research on how domestic political divisions shape responses to foreign disinformation in the European Union, the United States, and Georgia.