Back to top

Photograph of Shoon Murray

Shoon Murray Associate Professor Foreign Policy & Global Security

Bio
Professor Shoon Murray’s writes about the American foreign policy political process. Her most recent books are The Terror Authorization: The History and Politics of the 2001 AUMF (June 2014) and Mission Creep: The Militarization of US Foreign Policy (co-editor with Gordon Adams, December 2014). Her work has appeared in venues such as International Studies Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Foreign Policy Analysis, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and elsewhere. She has written about the use of war powers to counter terrorism, the relationship between U.S. ambassadors and the regional combatant commanders, US adjustment to global power shifts and diffusion, the press coverage leading up to the war in Iraq, the political consequences of September 11th, the effect of polls on presidential behavior, public reactions to military force and the “rally ‘round the flag phenomenon,” and the role of values and partisanship in American leaders’ belief systems. She earned her PhD in political science from Yale University.
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Fall 2024

  • SIS-689 Foreign Pol: Theor Decisn Mkng

Spring 2025

  • SIS-689 Foreign Pol: Theor Decisn Mkng

  • SISU-230 Analysis of US Foreign Policy

  • SISU-230 Analysis of US Foreign Policy

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Research Interests

Dr. Murray’s teaching and research interests include American Foreign Policy, civil-military relations, war powers, decision-making theory, and the role of public opinion, the media, and interest groups in the making of foreign policy.

Selected Publications

  • Mission Creep: The Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy? (co-editor with Gordon Adams), Georgetown University Press, December 2014.
  • The Terror Authorization: History and Politics of the 2001 AUMF, Palgrave Macmillan, June 2014. 
  • “Stretching the 2001 AUMF: A History of Two Presidencies," Presidential Studies Quarterly, March 2015, Vol. 45, No. 1, 175-198. 
  • “Broadening the Debate about War: The Inclusion of Foreign Critics in Media Coverage and its Impact on U.S. Public Opinion,” 2014. Foreign Policy Analysis. Vol. 10, No. 4, 329-350.  
  • “Combatant Commanders, Ambassadorial Authority, and the Conduct of Diplomacy” (with Anthony Quainton) 2014.  In Gordon Adams and Shoon Murray, eds., Mission Creep: The Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy? (Georgetown University Press). 
  • “Congress Beware: The 2001 AUMF could Become Permanent,” Huffington Post, September 15, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shoon-murray/congress-beware-the-2001-_b_5813740.html 
  • “US Adjustments to Global Power Shifts and Diffusion: An Analysis of Selected Security Issues,” 2013. Transworld Working Papers No. 28: 1-38. Istituto Affari Internazionali (September 13), http://www.iai.it/content.asp?langid=2&contentid=973