Spencer Whyte, PhD

Affiliated Programs

• Political Science (BA)
• International Relations (BA)

Education

• PhD, Political Science & International Relations (2026)
  University of Delaware (DE)
• MA, Political Science & International Relations (2022)
  University of Delaware (DE)
• BA, Political Science & History (2019)
  University of Mount Union (OH)

About Me

From a young age I was very interested in politics and history. I wanted to understand why all the figures I learned about in school made the decisions they did. Why did the Franco-Prussian War start? How did JFK navigate the Cuban Missile Crisis? This curiosity led me to my teaching and research interests in international relations and foreign policy analysis.

My undergraduate experiences in a small liberal arts college, where my professors directly engaged me and my classmates on the political issues of the day, fostered my research interests and informed my teaching philosophy. I enjoy hearing my students' perspective on class topics and current political events. It is only through this class discussion that we are able to understand others' ideas and formulate what we believe to be best practice.

I teach a number of classes across the International Relations, American Politics, and Comparative Politics subfields. My main research expertise is in foreign policy decision-making, international relations theory, international relations history, and British politics.

Research Interests

My primary research interests focus on foreign policy decision-making and international relations theory. I am particularly interested in understanding the international, domestic, and individual factors that influence how leaders view their state in the international system. My dissertation work explored variables of potential role change at all three levels of analysis in three cases of British foreign policy crisis. More broadly, my research interests center on foreign policy analysis, the decision-making process of foreign policy leaders, national identity, institutional and structural constraints on leadership agency, and international relations theory. I utilize a mixed-method approach to my research, employing archival, process-tracing, survey, and text analysis methodologies.

Media Expertise

• International Relations
• Foreign Policy Analysis
• Political Decision-Making
• British Politics

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

• International Studies Association
• American Political Science Association