Michael Barnett is a professor at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. Barnett previously taught at the Universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin, Macalester College, Wellesley College, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Barnett was a visiting scholar at the New School for Social Research and the Dayan Center at Tel-Aviv University. He has also been a visiting professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. He is currently spending a year at the Transantlatic Academy to work on a project on religion and the liberal international order. Barnett has written extensively on international relations theory, global governance, humanitarian action, and the Middle East. He is the author of numerous books, including The Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism (2011). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.