About

Research Interests

Political behavior/public opinion, Islamist militancy, international security, political economy

Professor Kaltenthaler received his Ph.D. from Washington University in 1995. His research has centered on how publics in various countries think about issues such as political violence and terrorism as well as international and domestic policy issues such as welfare provision, privatization, economic integration, and trade. He has a particular interest in how individual social psychology affects how people think about politics. He is currently working on a series of projects on how terrorism and the U.S. “war on terror” are perceived in the Islamic world. Professor Kaltenthaler is currently running a nation-wide survey project in Pakistan focusing on public attitudes toward Islamist militancy and media consumption.

Selected Publications:

Incentives for Islamist Militancy

“The Rationality of Radical Islam.” with Quintan Wiktorowicz. Political Science Quarterly. Vol 121, 2006, No. 2, pp. 295-319. (Reprinted in Demetrios James Caraley and Loren Morales Kando, eds. Terrorist Attacks and Nuclear Proliferation: Strategies for Overlapping Dangers.(New York: The Academy of Political Science, 2007; reprinted in Daniel Byman and Marylena Mantas eds. Religion, Democracy, and Politics in the Middle East. New York: The Academy of Political Science, 2012). PDF

Pakistani Attitudes toward Islamist Militancy

“The Drone War: Pakistani Public Opposition to American Drone Strikes in Pakistan.” With Christine Fair and William Miller.Political Science Quarterly.(Forthcoming) PDF

“The Sources of Pakistani Attitudes toward Religiously-motivated Terrorism,” with Will Miller, Steve Ceccoli and Ron Gelleny. 2010. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism Vol. 33, No. 9, pp. 815-835. PDF

“Partner or Enemy?: The Sources of Attitudes toward the United States in Pakistan,” with William J. Miller. 2013. In Christine C. Fair and Sarah Watson (eds.) In the Shadow of the U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan 2014: Pakistan’s Arc of Instability. University of Pennsylvania Press. (forthcoming)

Iranian Attitudes toward Nuclear Weapons and International Cooperation

“Iranians and the Bomb: Elite Cues and Support and Opposition to the Development of Nuclear Weapons” with Christine Fair and William Miller. Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. (Forthcoming). PDF

“Iranians and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.” With Christine Fair and William Miller. Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Forthcoming). PDF

“Busting Out?: Iranian Public Opinion toward the NPT.” Non-Proliferation Review. l. 20, Issue 1, 2013, with Christine Fair and William Miller. PDF

Social Trust and International Cooperation

“The Trust Syndrome: Generalized Trust and Support for European Integration.” With William Miller and Sarah Poggione. In progress.

“Social Trust and Public Support for Trade Liberalization.” With William Miller. International Studies Quarterly (Forthcoming).PDF

Auxiliary Tables for “Social Trust and Public Support for Trade Liberalization.” PDF