Richard K. Betts

Richard Kevin Betts (born August 15, 1947) is the Arnold Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies in the Department of Political Science, the director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies, and the director of the International Security Policy Program in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.He is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

He received his AB, AM, and PhD in government from Harvard University. He has also served on the Harvard faculty as lecturer in government and as visiting professor of government. He was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution until 1990. A former staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the National Security Council, and the Walter Mondale presidential campaign in 1984.Betts has been an occasional consultant to the National Intelligence Council and Central Intelligence Agency. His writings have earned five prizes, including the Woodrow Wilson Award of the American Political Science Association for the best book in political science.

• Soldiers, Statesmen, and Cold War Crises, 2nd Edition (Columbia University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-231-07469-7
• Surprise Attack: Lessons for Defense Planning(Brookings Institution, 1982) ISBN 0-8157-0929-3
• Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance (Brookings Institution, 1987) ISBN 0-8157-0935-8
• Military Readiness: Concepts, Choices, Consequences (Brookings Institution, 1995) ISBN 0-8157-0905-6
• The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked, coauthor and editor(1979) ISBN 0-8157-3072-1
• Nonproliferation and U.S. Foreign Policy (1980)
• Cruise Missiles: Technology, Strategy, Politics, coauthor and editor (1981) ISBN 0-8157-0931-5
• Conflict After the Cold War: Arguments on Causes of War and Peace, 2nd edition (Longman 2001) ISBN 0-321-20946-X
• Enemies of Intelligence: Knowledge and Power in American National Security. (Columbia University Press. 2007) ISBN 978-0-231-51113-1

• "The Soft Underbelly of American Primacy: Tactical Advantages of Terror," in Political Science Quarterly (Spring 2002), reprinted in September 11, Terrorist Attacks, and U.S. Foreign Policy, edited by Demetrios James Caraley (Academy of Political Science 2002).