Andrew Fenton Cooper

Professor, University Research Chair, Basillie School of International Affairs
Andrew Cooper.

Contact information

Email: andrew.cooper1@uwaterloo.ca / acooper@balsillieschool.ca

Areas of specialization

  • Diplomacy
  • International Institutions
  • Comparative Foreign Policy
  • Global Governance

BA (Waterloo); MA (Waterloo); D. Phil (Oxford)

Born in Kelvington, Saskatchewan, he obtained a BA and MA in Political Science, University of Waterloo, and D.Phil., Political Studies, University of Oxford. He is currently an Associate Research Fellow – UNU CRIS  Institute on Comparative Regional Integration) Bruges, Belgium.  From 2003 to 2010 he was Associate Director and Distinguished Fellow, The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). He has been a visiting professor, at the International Relations and Governance Studies Department, Shiv Nadar University, India; Centre for Global Cooperation Research, Duisburg, Germany; Department of Political Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa; Department of International Relations, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; and the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.

He has presented over 20 keynote presentations around the world, including high profile addresses to the 2017 conference on the “Future Foreign Service” convened by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and the 2015 Reunion of Mexico’s Ambassadors and Consul Generals. He had an extended role organizing the “Inside Government” training module for the incoming cohort of Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade foreign service officers (1999-2006). His presentations to parliamentary committees are extensive: including a preliminary evaluation of the impact of 9/11 on Canadian foreign policy before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, House of Commons, Ottawa, 27 November 2001. His co-authored work on the Inter-American Democracy Charter was extensively referred to by the 2010 Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.

He has published 78 articles in a wide range of top journals including International Organization, International Affairs, World Development, International Studies Review, and Global Policy Journal, with over 250 total publications.

Selected awards

  • First recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award at the 60th Annual International Studies Association (ISA) Convention (2019).
  • University of Waterloo Arts Award for Excellence in Research (2014)
  • Presentation of the 8th Käte Hamburger Lecture, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, 15 April 2014.
  • Canada-US Fulbright Research Chair, Annenberg Center on Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, (January-May 2009).
  • Canada-US Fulbright Scholar, The Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C. USA, (January-May 2000).
  • Léger Fellow, Planning Staff, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, (September 1993 – July 1994).
  • Co-recipient of the 1990 Canada-Australia Bicentennial Institutional Research Award, “Australia and Canada in the Changing International Order,” High Commission of Canada to Australia.
  • Commissioner: 2007 Warwick Commission on the future of the multilateral trade system.
  • Scopus author profile: 124 documents and h-index 24.
  • 2009 TRIPS (Teaching, Research & International Policy) Survey of International Relations Faculty in Ten Countries (William and Mary College) he Ranked 4th (p.57, q.48) in recognition of research and work having influence on foreign policy in Canada over the past 20 years.
  • 2024 Research.com study of Canadian political scientists: ranked 6th in the number of publications, and 21st on the overall list.

Selected publications

  • 2024. The Concertation Impulse in World Politics Contestation over Fundamental Institutions and the Constrictions of Institutionalist International Relations. Oxford University Press.
  • 2019 (with J. Cornut), “The changing practices of frontline diplomacy: New directions for inquiry,” Review of International Studies 45, 2, April: 300-319.
  • 2016. The BRICS – A Very Short Introduction (OUP).
  • 2011. Internet Gambling Offshore: Caribbean Struggles over Casino Capitalism (Palgrave Macmillan).
  • 2010. “The G20 as an improvised crisis committee and/or a contested ‘steering committee’ for the world,” International Affairs 86, 3, May: 741-757.
  • 2007. Celebrity Diplomacy (Paradigm Publishing).
  • 2006 (co-edited with T. Legler) Intervention without Intervening? OAS and Democracy in the Americas (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
  • 1998. Canadian Foreign Policy: Old Habits, New Directions (Prentice Hall).
  • 1997. ed. Niche Diplomacy: Middle Powers After the Cold War. Macmillan.
  • 1990. (with R. Higgott).  “Middle Power Leadership and Coalition-Building: Australia, the Cairns Group and the Uruguay Round,” International Organization 44, Autumn: 589-631.

Current projects

  • The International Dimension of Populism
  • Informal Institutions in and of the Global South
  • The recalibration of Multilateralism
  • Rethinking Middle Power Diplomacy 

Courses taught

  • International Diplomacy
  • Comparative Foreign Policy
  • International Organization
  • Global Governance

Additional links & information