Rate My Professor Aaron Belkin

Aaron Belkin is Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University, where he has served since 2009, advancing to full professor in 2012, Acting Chair of the department in 2024, and Director of Faculty Advising in 2024. He earned a B.A. in International Relations from Brown University in 1988, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1992, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Berkeley in 1998. Belkin's academic appointments include Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1998 to 2009, Visiting Lecturer in Political Science at Stanford University in 1998, Associate Professor of Psychology at Hunter College in 2006, and Visiting Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law from 2015 to 2016. Beyond academia, he founded and directed the Palm Center from 1998 to 2022, a research institute focused on using social science to influence public policy on military issues, and served as founding president of Take Back the Court from 2018 to 2022, raising over $4 million to advocate for Supreme Court expansion.

Professor Belkin specializes in military masculinity and sexuality in the armed forces, with research extending to civil-military relations, coups d'état, LGBTQ military inclusion, and strategies for translating research into policy impact. His major publications include Bring Me Men: Military Masculinity and the Benign Façade of American Empire, 1898–2001 (Columbia University Press, 2012), United We Stand? Divide and Conquer Politics and the Logic of International Hostility (State University of New York Press, 2005), Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Exploring the Debates on the Gay Ban in the U.S. Military (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003, co-edited), Counterfactual Thought Experiments in World Politics (Princeton University Press, 1996, co-edited), and the e-book How We Won: Progressive Lessons from the Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (Huffington Post Media Group, 2011). He has published over two dozen peer-reviewed articles, such as “Toward a Structural Understanding of Coup Risk” (Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2003, 625 citations) and “Does Social Cohesion Determine Motivation in Combat?” (Armed Forces & Society, 2006). Belkin is founding co-editor of Critical Military Studies. His efforts through the Palm Center were instrumental in eroding support for military anti-gay and anti-transgender policies, contributing to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the lifting of the transgender service ban. Honors include a MacArthur Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (1996–1997), National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship (1992–1995), Freedom Award from Beth Chayim Chadashim, and Monette-Horwitz Award.