Rate My Professor Jonathan Graubart

Jonathan Graubart is Professor and Chair of the Political Science department at San Diego State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002 and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1989. Prior to academia, Graubart held diverse professional roles, including attorney at the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the Reagan administration, editorial staff member at Tikkun magazine under Michael Lerner, and San Francisco attorney specializing in plaintiff's-side civil litigation against securities fraud perpetrators—his first case against the Walt Disney Company—along with pro bono work in poverty law and asylum law for political refugees from Central America. He also worked as a fisherman, factory worker, and attempted circus promoter.

Graubart's academic specializations include international relations, international law, Israel-Palestine, Zionism, Jewish dissent, international tribunals, the United Nations, normative theory, resistance politics, global protest movements, and climate justice activism. He authored the books Jewish Self-Determination beyond Zionism: Lessons from Hannah Arendt and Other Pariahs (Temple University Press, 2023) and Legalizing Transnational Activism: The Struggle to Gain Social Change from NAFTA's Citizen Petitions (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008). Key publications feature 'David in Goliath’s Citadel: Mobilizing the Security Council’s Normative Power for Palestine' (Third World Quarterly, 2015), 'R2P and Pragmatic Liberal Interventionism: Values in the Service of Interests' (Humanity, 2013), 'Taking Milosevic Seriously: Imperialism, Law, and the Politics of Global Justice' (International Studies Perspectives, 2013), and the forthcoming 'It is Deadly and Oppressive but Is It One State? Assessing the New One-State Reality Paradigm' (Palestine/Israel Review, 2025). His current projects address challenges faced by American Jewish dissenters post-October 7 and the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant requests for Israel's Prime Minister and Defense Minister. Graubart formerly directed SDSU's International Security and Conflict Resolution program, contributes op-eds to Truthout, Common Dreams, and Academe, and serves on the academic advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace.