I am a professor in the Department of Political Science at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio where I teach courses on international relations and U.S. foreign policy. In recent years, I have broadened my interests to include the intersection of economic, security, and environmental issues as the U.S. engages the Arctic region.
Since I received my Ph.D., I have been interested in international organizations, specifically the role of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank in coordinating financial relations across the world. While conducting research on the political economy of multilateralism, I held fellowships that allowed me to gain real-world work experiences in the U.S. State Department and on Capitol Hill. My education started in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. My M.A. is in Government and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. I completed a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
If you would like to learn more about me or contact me, please note the following links:
Email: kathryn.lavelle@case.edu
Web: https://politicalscience.case.edu/faculty/kathryn-lavelle/
Wilson Center Profile: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/kathryn-c-lavelle
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-lavelle-4424634/
My recent publications on the Arctic include:
Lavelle, Kathryn C. (2025). Reluctant Conquest: American Wealth, Power, and Security in the Arctic. Yale University Press.
Lavelle, Kathryn C. (2024) “Constructing the challenge of governance in the Arctic: Colonial, alliance, and global concerns across time.” In Constructing Global Challenges in World Politics, edited by Isakova, Alina., Neuwinger, Malte., Waltrup, Robin Schulze., and Uraiqat, Oday. Routledge.
Odgaard, Liselotte and Lavelle, Kathryn C. (2023). “The Arctic Council, the International Maritime Organization, and the Polar Code,” Environment and Security, 1(3-4): https://doi.org/10.1177/27538796231174825
Fravel, M. Taylor., Lavelle, Kathryn., and Odgaard, Liselotte. (2021). “China engages the Arctic: a great power in a regime complex.” Asian Security 18(2): 138-158.
Lavelle, Kathryn C. (2021). “Regime, Climate, and Region in Transition: Russian Participation in the Arctic Council.” Problems of Post Communism 69(4-5): 345-357.
Women in the Arctic and Antarctic 