Portrait of Dr. Ionut Catalin Popescu

Dr. Ionut Catalin Popescu

  • Associate Professor at Political Science, College of Liberal Arts

Scholarly and Creative Works

2025

  • 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

2024

  • Popescu, I. C. (2024, November 20). The Promise of Trump’s Realist China Grand Strategy. The American Conservative. Retrieved from https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-promise-of-trumps-realist-china-grand-strategy/
  • Popescu, I. C. (n.d.). Great Power Competition, Offensive Realism, and The New Debates on US Grand Strategy. Comparative Strategy.
  • Popescu, I. C. (n.d.). Adapting US Defense Strategy to Great-Power Competition. Parameters, 55(1).
  • Popescu, I. C. (2024, July 5). From Globalism to America First Geoeconomics. The American Conservative. Retrieved from https://www.theamericanconservative.com/from-globalism-to-america-first-geoeconomics/
  • Popescu, I. C. (2024, May 21). Donald Trump’s First-Term China Strategy Was A Success. The National Interest. Retrieved from https://nationalinterest.org/feature/donald-trump’s-first-term-china-strategy-was-success-211110
  • Popescu, I. C. (2024, March 1). Review of The Pursuit of Dominance: 2000 Years of Superpower Grand Strategy by Christopher J. Fettweis. Political Science Quarterly. Oxford University Press.

2023

  • Popescu, I. C., Jim, C., & Dan, N. (2023, March). Rare Earths Supply Chains and Confrontation with China. The National Interest. Retrieved from https://nationalinterest.org/feature/rare-earths-supply-chains-and-confrontation-china-206331

2022

  • 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. (2022, May 27). “Essay by Ionut Popescu on Benjamin Miller, Grand Strategy from Truman to Trump,.” H-Diplo. United States: ISSF Roundtable 13-11. Retrieved from https://issforum.org/roundtables/13-11#Review_by_Ionut_Popescu_Texas_State_University

2021

  • Popescu, I. C. (2021, June). Seeds of Stability: Land Reform and US Foreign Policy. Perspectives on Politics. US and UK: Cambridge University Press.

2020

  • 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. (2020, February 18). An Old Grand Strategy for A New Era. Providence. Retrieved from https://providencemag.com/2020/02/old-grand-strategy-american-conservative-nationalism-book-review-colin-dueck-age-iron/

2019

  • 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
  • Popescu, I. C. (2019, March). A Middle Path? US Public Opinion and Grand Strategy. E-International Relations. Retrieved from https://www.e-ir.info/2019/03/03/a-middle-path-us-public-opinion-and-grand-strategy/
  • Popescu, I. C. (2019). Pragmatism and Practicality: Rethinking U.S. Civil-Military Relations Models for a  Turbulent Era. Armed Forces & Society, 45, 198–205. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0095327X18765473

2018

  • Popescu, I. C. (2018). Grand Strategy vs. Emergent Strategy in The Conduct of Foreign Policy. Journal of Strategic Studies, 41(3), 438–460.
  • Popescu, I. C. (2018, December 19). The Case for Pragmatic Globalism: Review of Paul Miller’s American Power and Liberal Order. Providence. Retrieved from https://providencemag.com/2018/12/the-case-for-pragmatic-globalism-review-of-paul-millers-american-power-and-liberal-order/
  • Popescu, I. C. (2018, May 21). Trump Doesn’t Need A Grand Strategy: Why Planning is Overrated. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2018-05-21/trump-doesnt-need-grand-strategy
  • Popescu, I. C. (2018). Conservative Internationalism and the Trump Administration. Orbis, 62, 91–104.

2017

  • Popescu, I. C. (2017). Emergent Strategy and Grand Strategy: How American Presidents Succeed in Foreign Policy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved from https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/emergent-strategy-and-grand-strategy
  • Popescu, I. C. (2017, December 11). Grand Strategy is Overrated. Foreign Policy. Retrieved from http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/11/grand-strategy-is-overrated-trump-national-security-strategy-nss/?utm_content=bufferf9643&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
  • Popescu, I. C. (2017). Strategic Uncertainty, the Third Offset, and US Grand Strategy. Parameters, 46(Winter 2017). Retrieved from https://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/parameters/issues/Winter_2016-17/9_Popescu.pdf

2016

  • Popescu, I. C. (2016). The Intellectual Roots of Reagan’s Foreign Policy. In E. Patterson & J. Morrison (Eds.), The Reagan Manifesto: “A Time for Choosing” and Its Influence. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

2015

  • Popescu, I. C. (2015). What Obama Gets Right and Wrong on Grand Strategy. War on The Rocks. Retrieved from https://warontherocks.com/2015/03/what-obama-gets-right-and-wrong-on-grand-strategy/

2014

  • Popescu, I. C. (2014). Is It Time for Retrenchment? The Big Debate on American Grand Strategy. In P. Feaver (Ed.), Strategic Retrenchment and Renewal in the American Experience. Carlisle, PA: Army War College Strategic Studies Institute.
  • Popescu, I. C. (2014, February 12). Conservative Internationalism and American Foreign Policy [Review of Conservative Internationalism, by H. Nau]. War on the Rocks.

2010

  • Popescu, I. C. (2010). The Disputed Importance of Process in the Making of American Grand Strategy: A Review Essay. Orbis, 54.
  • Popescu, I. C. (2010). War and Military Operations in the 21st Century: Implications for Civil-Military Relations. Triangle Institute for Security Studies.
  • Popescu, I. C. (2010). The Last Quadrennial Defense Review? What the Pentagon Should Learn from Corporations about Strategic Planning. Armed Forces Journal.

2009

  • Popescu, I. C. (2009). Strategic Theory and Practice: A Critical Analysis of the Planning Process for the Long War on Terror. Contemporary Security Policy, 30.
  • Popescu, I. C. (2009). Bridging the Strategy-Resources Gap: Defense Planning in a Time of Crisis. Joint Force Quarterly.