Matthew Clary

Education

Ph.D. in Political Science & International Affairs, University of Georgia – Specialization in international relations and comparative politics

M.A. in Political Science, University of Georgia

B.A. in Political Science and Asian Studies, Furman University

About Me

Matthew Clary is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and has been at Auburn for 8 years. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in international relations and comparative politics, specializing in courses on national security policy, American foreign policy, Russian foreign policy, strategic intelligence and intelligence studies, East Asian political systems and geopolitics, and advanced political simulations. His research specializes in international security and foreign policy, with a central focus on the reputational processes by which nation-states become designated as 'pariahs' or 'rogues' and how they may become rehabilitated into the international community and on crisis dynamics in US-China relations. He is also interested in democratization processes in other nations and how such changes influence national reputations in the international system. Finally, he is interested in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), with primary attention paid to the use of simulations and role-playing to enhance the undergraduate learning experience.

Recently, Clary became the Director for a new Undergraduate Certificate in National Security & Intelligence (NSI) at Auburn and is the Faculty Director for the Political Science in Brussels Study Abroad Program, Political Science Undergraduate Internship Coordinator, and the Faculty Advisor for Auburn's Model United Nations (MUN) team and Pi Sigma Alpha Political Science National Honor Society.

Prior to coming to Auburn, Clary worked as the grants coordinator for the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia (UGA), where he helped write and/or coordinate over 120 outgoing grant proposals amounting to over $60 million in requested funds and over 30 awards amounting to more than $7 million received in two years.

Research Interests

national security, international security, foreign policy (US, Russia, China), crisis dynamics, national reputation management, simulations and role-playing in undergraduate education

Publications

• Jordan Windham and Matthew Q. Clary, “The Politics of Perception: How the White House Manipulates National Crisis Narratives.” Auburn University Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship. 2023 Edition.
• Matthew Q. Clary, From Pariah to Phoenix: Improving a National Reputation from the Ashes of the Past, Lanham, MA: Lexington Books (Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield)
• Matthew Q. Clary, “Global Politics of the Oceans,” in Environmental Issues Today: Choices and Challenges, Robert Duffy and Susan Opp (eds.), Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
• Howard J. Wiarda and Matthew Q. Clary, “Premature Democracy: Waking up to the Reality of Incomplete Democratic Transitions in Latin America,” Brown Journal of World Affairs, Vol.17, No.1: 89-98.
• Matthew Q. Clary, “Transitions to Democracy: Grand Theory or Grand Approach?” in Howard J. Wiarda (ed.) Grand Theory and Ideology in the Social Sciences. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan).

Courses Taught