David A. Welch is CIGI chair of global security and interim director at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, and professor of political science at the University of Waterloo. An award-winning author and scholar, David in an expert in foreign policy decision making and international security. He also hosts CIGI's podcast series Inside the Issues.
David A. Welch is CIGI chair of global security at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and professor of political science at the University of Waterloo. His 2005 book, Painful Choices: A Theory of Foreign Policy Change, was the inaugural winner of the International Studies Association ISSS Book Award for the best book published in 2005 or 2006, and his 1993 book, Justice and the Genesis of War, won the 1994 Edgar S. Furniss Award for an outstanding contribution to national security studies.
He is the author of Decisions, Decisions: The Art of Effective Decision-Making and co-author of Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived; The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Concise History; On the Brink: Americans and Soviets Reexamine the Cuban Missile Crisis; and Cuba on the Brink: Castro, The Missile Crisis, and the Soviet Collapse.
David is co-editor of Intelligence and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his articles have appeared in numerous journals, including Asian Perspective, Ethics and International Affairs, Foreign Affairs, The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Intelligence and National Security, International Security, International Journal, International Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Mershon International Studies Review, The Review of International Studies, and Security Studies. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1990.