- Professor
Biography
Dr. Thomas Preston is C. O. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Washington State University and a specialist in security policy, foreign affairs, and political psychology (leadership analysis). He received his M.A. at the University of Essex (United Kingdom) and his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH). Professor Preston joined Washington State University and the Department of Political Science in 1994 and teaches undergraduate courses on American foreign policy, U.S. national security policy, and intelligence analysis and tradecraft. At the graduate level, he offers seminars on international security and the psychology of leadership and decision-making. He has been awarded the prestigious William F. Mullen Excellence in Teaching Award by the WSU College of Liberal Arts, was named a WSU faculty Innovator by the university, and has received two Fulbright Senior Scholar Awards from the U.S. State Department to New Zealand in 2010 and Romania in 2020. He has written numerous books, refereed journal articles and book chapters on presidential leadership, foreign and national security policy, and the use of active-learning simulations in the classroom. At WSU he teaches undergraduate courses in national security policy, foreign policy, and intelligence analysis and analytic tradecraft. At the graduate level, he teaches seminars in the psychology of leadership and decision making, as well as in international security.
Education
- B.A. Political Science, Washburn University
- M.A. Government, The University of Essex, United Kingdom
- Ph.D. Political Science, Ohio State University
Research Interests
Security Studies, Foreign Policy Analysis, Political Psychology, U.S. Foreign & Defense Policy, Presidential Studies, Leadership and Decision Making, Nuclear & Biological Weapons Proliferation
Recent Publications
- Martha Cottam, Elena M. Mastors, Thomas Preston & Beth Dietz-Uhler. Introduction to Political Psychology. Erlbaum, 2004 / 2nd Edition, Taylor & Francis, 2010 / 3rd Edition, Routledge, 2016 / 4th Edition, Routledge, 2022.
- Thomas Preston. “The Biden and Trump Foreign Policies: Comparing Differing Approaches to the Use of Force and Diplomacy.” In Stanley Renshon and Peter Suedfeld (eds.), Presidential Leadership and Foreign Policy: Comparing the Trump and Biden Doctrines. New York: Springer. (forthcoming 2025)
- Thomas Preston. Pandora’s Trap: Presidential Decision Making and Blame Avoidance in Vietnam and Iraq. Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield: 2011/2013.
- Thomas Preston. From Lambs to Lions: Future Security Relationships in a World of Biological and Nuclear Weapons. Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007/2009.
- Thomas Preston. The President and His Inner Circle: Leadership Style and the Advisory Process in Foreign Affairs. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.