Rawi Abdelal

Rawi Abdelal is the Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at Harvard Business School and the Director of Harvard''s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Professor Abdelal''s primary expertise is international political economy, and his research focuses on the politics of globalization and the political economy of Eurasia. Abdelal''s first book, National Purpose in the World Economy, won the 2002 Shulman Prize as the outstanding book on the international relations of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. His second book, Capital Rules, explains the evolution of the social norms and legal rules of the international financial system. Abdelal has also edited or co-edited three books: The Rules of Globalization, a collection of Harvard Business School cases on international business; Measuring Identity; and Constructing the International Economy. Abdelal is currently at work on The Profits of Power, a book that explores the geopolitics of energy in Europe and Eurasia.

In 1999 Abdelal earned a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University, where he had received an M.A. in 1997. At Cornell Abdelal''s dissertation won the Kahin Prize in International Relations and the Esman Prize. He was a President''s Scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he received a B.S. with highest honors in Economics in 1993. Recent honors include Harvard Business School''s Greenhill Award, Apgar Award for innovation in teaching, and Williams Award for excellence in teaching, as well as, on several occasions, the Student Association''s Faculty Award for outstanding teaching.

Areas of Interest

• emerging markets
• globalization
• government and business
• political economy

Education

• 1999 Ph.D., Government, Cornell University
• 1997 M.A., Government, Cornell University
• 1993 B.S., with highest honors, Economics, Georgia Institute of Technology

Academic Appointments

Harvard Business School

• 2013– Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management
• 2008-2013 Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration
• 2008– Professor of Business Administration
• 2004-2008 Associate Professor of Business Administration
• 1999-2004 Assistant Professor of Business Administration

Harvard University

• 2014– Affiliated Professor of Government, Department of Government

Administrative Experience

Harvard Business School

• 2012– Faculty Chair, Harvard Business School/YPO Presidents’ Program
• 2012-2015 Chair, MBA Required Curriculum, Harvard Business School
• 2008-2011 Course Head, Business, Government, and the International Economy, Harvard Business School

Harvard University

• 2022– Emma Bloomberg Co-Chair, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative
• 2016-2022 Faculty Co-Chair, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative
• 2015-2022 Director, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Teaching

Harvard Business School

• 2022-2023 Business, Government, and the International Economy
• 2020-2021 Wisdom from Uncertainty: Life as a Work in Progress
• 2015-2022 General Management Program
• 2014-2015 Strategy
• 2013-2014 Business, Government, and the International Economy
• 2011-2013 Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development
• 2009-2014 Global Energy Seminar
• 2008-2011 Business, Government, and the International Economy
• 2005-2007 General Management Program
• 2004-2008 Managing International Trade and Investment
• 2001, 2003 Creating Modern Capitalism
• 1999-2003 Business, Government, and the International Economy

Harvard University

• 2011-2012 Informing Eurasia (History 2270), with Terry D. Martin and William M. Todd
• 2008-2009 Comparative Politics of Post-Socialism (Government 2213), with Timothy J. Colton and Grzegorz Ekiert

Awards and Honors

• 2017 Distinguished Alumnus Award, School of Economics, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Georgia Institute of Technology
• 2016 HBS One Harvard Faculty Fellowship, Harvard Business School
• 2013 Robert F. Greenhill Award, Harvard Business School
• 2013 Herbert F. Johnson Professorship, Harvard Business School
• 2012 Charles M. Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching, Harvard Business School
• 2012 Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Required Curriculum,
• presented by the Student Association and MBA Class of 2012, Harvard Business School
• 2011 Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching, Harvard Business School
• 2008 Joseph C. Wilson Professorship, Harvard Business School
• 2004 Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Required Curriculum,
• presented by the Student Association and MBA Class of 2004, Harvard Business School
• 2002 Marshall Shulman Book Prize, for outstanding book published during 2001 on international relations, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
• 2002 Robert F. Greenhill Award, Harvard Business School
• 1999 Janice N. and Milton J. Esman Prize, for best dissertation, Department of Government, Cornell University
• 1999 Wilfrid Harrison Prize, for best article published in Political Studies
• 1997 George McT. Kahin Prize in International Relations, for most promising dissertation, Department of Government, Cornell University
• 1993 Highest Honors, Georgia Institute of Technology

Publications

Books

• Abdelal, Rawi, Mark Blyth, and Craig Parsons, eds. Constructing the International Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010.
• Abdelal, Rawi, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Alastair Iain Johnston, and Rose McDermott, eds. Measuring Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Abdelal, Rawi, ed. The Rules of Globalization: Case Book. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2008.
• Abdelal, Rawi. Capital Rules: The Construction of Global Finance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
• Abdelal, Rawi. National Purpose in the World Economy: Post-Soviet States in Comparative Perspective. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.

Journal Articles

• Abdelal, Rawi. "Dignity, Inequality, and the Populist Backlash: Lessons from America and Europe for a Sustainable Globalization." (pdf) Global Policy 11, no. 4 (September 2020): 492–500.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "À la recherche du temps perdu et trouvé: Reactions to the commentary of Douglas J. Forsyth and Léonard Laborie." Special Issue on Mondialisations financières depuis 1880. Monde(s): histoire, espaces, relations, no. 13 (May 2018): 166–171.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "The Multinational Firm and Geopolitics: Europe, Russian Energy, and Power." (pdf) Business and Politics 17, no. 3 (October 2015): 553–576.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "The Profits of Power: Commerce and Realpolitik in Eurasia." (pdf) Review of International Political Economy 20, no. 3 (June 2013): 421–456.
• Abdelal, Rawi, and Sophie Meunier. "Managed Globalization: Doctrine, Practice, and Promise (pdf)." Journal of European Public Policy 17, no. 3 (April 2010): 349–366.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "The Promise and Peril of Russia's Resurgent State." (pdf) Harvard Business Review 88, nos. 1/2 (January–February 2010): 125–129.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Sovereign Wealth in Abu Dhabi." Geopolitics 14, no. 2 (April 2009): 317–327.
• Abdelal, Rawi, Ayesha Khan, and Tarun Khanna. "Where Oil-Rich Nations Are Placing Their Bets." Harvard Business Review 86, no. 9 (September 2008): 119–128.
• Abdelal, Rawi, and Adam Segal. "Has Globalization Passed Its Peak?" Foreign Affairs 86, no. 1 (January–February 2007): 103–114. (Abridged and reprinted in International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues, ninth edition, ed. Robert J. Art and Robert Jervis. New York: Longman, 2009, pp. 340-346.)
• Abdelal, Rawi, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Alastair Iain Johnston, and Rose McDermott. "Identity as a Variable." (pdf) Perspectives on Politics 4, no. 4 (December 2006): 695–711.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Writing the Rules of Global Finance: France, Europe, and Capital Liberalization." (pdf) Review of International Political Economy 13, no. 1 (February 2006): 1–27.
• Bruner, Christopher, and Rawi Abdelal. "To Judge Leviathan: Sovereign Credit Ratings, National Law, and the World Economy." (pdf) Journal of Public Policy 25, no. 2 (August 2005): 191–217.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Le consensus de Paris: la France et les règles de la finance mondiale." (pdf) Critique internationale, no. 28 (July/September 2005): 87–115.
• Abdelal, Rawi, and Laura Alfaro. "Capital and Control: Lessons from Malaysia." (pdf) Challenge 46, no. 4 (July–August 2003): 36–53. (Also published in French as "Contrôle des capitaux: les enseignements de l’expérience malaisienne." Problèmes économiques, no. 2,837 (December 2003), pp. 21-28.)
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Contested Currency: Russia's Ruble in Domestic and International Politics." Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 19, no. 2 (June 2003): 55–76. (Reprinted in Perspectives on the Russian State in Transition, ed. Wolfgang Danspeckgruber. Princeton, N.J.: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, 2006, pp. 197-219.)
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Purpose and Privation: Nation and Economy in Post-Habsburg Eastern Europe and Post-Soviet Eurasia." (pdf) Eastern European Politics and Societies 16, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 898–933.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Memories of Nations and States: Institutional History and National Identity in Post-Soviet Eurasia." (pdf) Nationalities Papers 30, no. 3 (September 2002): 459–484.
• Abdelal, Rawi, and Jonathan Kirshner. "Strategy, Economic Relations, and the Definition of National Interests." (pdf) Security Studies 9, nos. 1-2 (1999): 119–156. (Reprinted in Power and the Purse: Economic Statecraft, Interdependence, and National Security, ed. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Edward D. Mansfield, and Norrin M. Ripsman. London: Frank Cass, 2000, pp. 119-156.)
• Abdelal, Rawi. "The Politics of Monetary Leadership and Followership: Stability in the European Monetary System Since the Currency Crisis of 1992." (pdf) Political Studies 46, no. 2 (June 1998): 236–259. (Winner of Harrison Prize Awarded each year for the best article published by Political Studies in that volume​.)

Book Chapters

• Abdelal, Rawi. "Of Learning and Forgetting: Centrism, Populism, and the Legitimacy Crisis of Globalization." In The Downfall of the American Order? edited by Peter J. Katzenstein and Jonathan Kirshner, 105–123. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2022.
• Abdelal, Rawi, and Ulrich Krotz. "Dis-Atlanticism: The West in an Era of Global Fragmentation." In Key Controversies in European Integration. 3rd edition, edited by Hubert Zimmerman and Andreas Dür, 211–220. London: Red Globe Press, 2021.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Firms in Firmament: Hydrocarbons and the Circulation of Power." In Protean Power: Exploring the Uncertain and Unexpected in World Politics, edited by Peter J. Katzenstein and Lucia A. Seybert, 147–165. Cambridge Studies in International Relations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
• Abdelal, Rawi, and Mark Blyth. "Just Who Put You in Charge? We Did: Credit Rating Agencies and the Politics of Ratings." In Ranking the World: Grading States as a Tool of Global Governance, edited by Alexander Cooley and Jack Snyder, 39–59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
• Abdelal, Rawi, and Ulrich Krotz. "Disjoining Partners: Europe and the American Imperium." In Power in a Complex Global System, edited by Louis W. Pauly and Bruce W. Jentleson, 131–147. London: Routledge, 2014.
• Abdelal, Rawi, Mark Blyth, and Craig Parsons. "Constructing the International Economy." Introduction to Constructing the International Economy, edited by Rawi Abdelal, Mark Blyth, and Craig Parsons, 1–19. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010.
• Abdelal, Rawi, Mark Blyth, and Craig Parsons. "Re-Constructing IPE: Some Conclusions Drawn from a Crisis." In Constructing the International Economy, edited by Rawi Abdelal, Mark Blyth, and Craig Parsons, 227–239. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010.
• Abdelal, Rawi, and John G. Ruggie. "The Principles of Embedded Liberalism: Social Legitimacy and Global Capitalism." (pdf) In New Perspectives on Regulation (pdf), edited by David Moss and John Cisternino, 151–162. Cambridge, MA: Tobin Project, 2009.
• Abdelal, Rawi, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Alastair Iain Johnston, and Rose McDermott. "Introduction." Introduction to Measuring Identity, edited by Rawi Abdelal, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Alastair Iain Johnston, and Rose McDermott, 1–13. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Abdelal, Rawi, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Alastair Iain Johnston, and Rose McDermott. "Identity as a Variable." In Measuring Identity, edited by Rawi Abdelal, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Alastair Iain Johnston, and Rose McDermott, 17–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Constructivism as an Approach to International Political Economy." In Handbook of International Political Economy, edited by Mark Blyth, 57–71. London: Routledge, 2009.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "The IMF and the Capital Account." (pdf) In Reforming the IMF for the 21st Century, edited by Edwin M. Truman, 185–197. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, 2006.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Nationalism and International Political Economy in Eurasia." (pdf) In Economic Nationalism in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Helleiner and Andreas Pickel, 21–43. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Markets and Meanings: Nationalism, Land, and Property in Lithuania." In Land Rights, Ethno-Nationality, and Sovereignty in History, edited by Stanley L. Engerman and Jacob Metzer, 111–127. New York: Routledge, 2004.
• Tedlow, Richard S., and Rawi Abdelal. "Theodore Levitt's 'The Globalization of Markets': An Evaluation After Two Decades." In The Global Market: Developing a Strategy to Manage Across Borders, edited by John A. Quelch and Rohit Deshpandé, 11–30. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004.
• Abdelal, Rawi. "Interpreting Interdependence: National Security and the Energy Trade of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus." In Swords and Sustenance: The Economics of Security in Belarus and Ukraine, edited by Robert Legvold and Celeste Wallander, 101–127. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. (Also published in Russian as "Razlichnoe ponimanie vzaimozavisimosti: natsional'naia bezopasnost' i torgovlia energoresursami mezhdu Rossiei, Ukrainoi, i Belarus'iu." In Mechi i orala: ekonomika natsional'noi bezopasnosti Belarusi i Ukrainy, ed. Robert Legvold and Celeste Wallander. Moscow: Interdialect, 2004, pp. 125-156.)
• Abdelal, Rawi. "National Strategy and National Money: Politics and the End of the Ruble Zone, 1991-94." (pdf) In Monetary Orders: Ambiguous Economics, Ubiquitous Politics, edited by Jonathan Kirshner, 98–124. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003.