Biography and education
Ionut Popescu is Associate Professor of Political Science at Texas State University and Graduate Director of the Masters in Political Science program.
Prior to joining Texas State, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his PhD in Political Science and International Relations from Duke University in 2013, and he is a former winner of the Smith Richardson Foundation Strategy and Policy Fellows book-writing grant. He also won the Freedom and Opportunity Academic Prize from the Heritage Foundation. Dr. Popescu is the author of No Peer Rivals: American Grand Strategy in the Era of Great Power Competition (University of Michigan Press, 2025) and Emergent Strategy and Grand Strategy: How American Presidents Succeed in Foreign Policy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017). His articles and commentaries have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Strategic Studies, Contemporary Security Policy, Orbis, Parameters, The Hill, Joint Force Quarterly, Armed Forces Journal and War On The Rocks. Dr. Popescu also serves as a Navy Intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, and he deployed with the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in 2023-2024.
Prior to joining Texas State, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his PhD in Political Science and International Relations from Duke University in 2013, and he is a former winner of the Smith Richardson Foundation Strategy and Policy Fellows book-writing grant. He also won the Freedom and Opportunity Academic Prize from the Heritage Foundation. Dr. Popescu is the author of No Peer Rivals: American Grand Strategy in the Era of Great Power Competition (University of Michigan Press, 2025) and Emergent Strategy and Grand Strategy: How American Presidents Succeed in Foreign Policy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017). His articles and commentaries have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Strategic Studies, Contemporary Security Policy, Orbis, Parameters, The Hill, Joint Force Quarterly, Armed Forces Journal and War On The Rocks. Dr. Popescu also serves as a Navy Intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, and he deployed with the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in 2023-2024.
Featured grants
- Popescu, Ionut Catalin. Shape or Adapt: The Planning of American Grand Strategy, Smith Richardson Foundation, Private / Foundation / Corporate, $60000. (Funded: 2015). Grant.
- Popescu, Ionut Catalin. No Peer Rivals: American Grand Strategy in the Era of Great Power Competition, America in the World Consortium, Private / Foundation / Corporate, $10000. (Submitted: October 2021, Funded: December 14, 2021 - May 1, 2023). Grant.
- Popescu, Ionut Catalin. Public Opinion and American Grand Strategy: Does the Public Support a Middle Path?, Research Enhancement Program (REP), Texas State University, $6501. (Submitted: November 2017, Funded: January 2018 - Present). Grant.
Featured scholarly/creative works
- Popescu, I. C. (2025). No Peer Rivals: American Grand Strategy in the Era of Great Power Competition. University of Michigan Press. Retrieved from https://press.umich.edu/Books/N/No-Peer-Rivals2
- Popescu, I. C. (2022, December 7). Only Offensive Realism Can Contain China. The National Interest. Retrieved from https://nationalinterest.org/feature/only-offensive-realism-can-contain-china-205988
- Popescu, I. C. (2020, September 22). It’s Too Soon For America To Kill Its Grand Strategy. The National Interest. Retrieved from https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/its-too-soon-america-kill-its-grand-strategy-169398
- Popescu, I. C. (2020, April 15). It’s Time to Get Real About Great-Power Politics. The National Interest. US. Retrieved from https://nationalinterest.org/feature/its-time-get-real-about-great-power-politics-144742
- Popescu, I. C. (2019). American Grand Strategy and the Rise of Offensive Realism. Political Science Quarterly, 134(3), 375–405. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/polq.12960
Featured awards
- Award / Honor Recipient: Freedom and Opportunity Academic Prize ($15,000), Heritage Foundation. June 2023 - Present
- Award / Honor Recipient: Faculty of the Year, Center for International Studies. May 2023 - Present
- Award / Honor Recipient: Achievement Award for Scholarship, TXST College of Liberal Arts. August 1, 2023 - Present
- Award / Honor Recipient: Top Downloaded Article, Wiley – Political Science Quarterly. August 2021
- Award / Honor Recipient: Teaching Award of Honor, Texas State Alumni Association. May 2020
Featured service activities
- Chair
Academic Program Review Committee
- Undergraduate Advisor
Young Conservatives for Texas
- Reviewer / Referee
Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Defence Studies, Armed Forces & Society, Contemporary Security Policy, Texas National Security Review, SUNY Press, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Cambria Press, Polity Press
- Speaker
Texas State University International Studies Club
- Organizer
Challenges and Opportunities for American Foreign Policy in an Election Year
- Undergraduate Advisor
SCONA Conference -Texas A&M