A scholar who reread war after withdrawal
Mark N. Katz is an American scholar of international politics whose research covers Russian politics and foreign policy, revolution, and the war on terror. At George Mason University, he taught and wrote on Soviet and Russian policy in the Third World and the international dimensions of revolutionary movements. In a 2011 analysis of the Afghanistan withdrawal, he argued that Soviet military and economic aid sustained Najibullah's regime for more than three years after the troops left, challenging the assumption that withdrawal necessarily meant imminent collapse.
Career Timeline
- 1976B.A. in international relations, University of California, Riverside
- 1978M.A. in international relations, Johns Hopkins SAIS
- 1982Ph.D. in political science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 1982Soviet Affairs Analyst, U.S. Department of State
- 1988Assistant Professor of Government and Politics, George Mason University
- 1998Professor of Government and Politics, George Mason University
- 2011Published “Lessons of the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan”
- 2024Retired from George Mason University as professor emeritus