Paul K. MacDonald is a professor of political science at Wellesley College. He received a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to Wellesley, he taught for three years in the department of political science at Williams College. He has also held research positions at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, and the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. His work focuses on the how powerful states create and sustain relations of dominance over others in international politics. His first book Networks of Domination: The Social Foundations of Peripheral Conquest in International Politics was published by Oxford University Press. His second book Twilight of the Titans: Great Power Decline and Retrenchment, coauthored with Joseph M. Parent, was published by Cornell University Press. He has also published articles in International Security, International Organization, World Politics, Review of International Studies, Security Studies, Foreign Affairs, Daedalus, International Affairs, Political Science Quarterly, and the American Political Science Review.