Larry George

Larry George

Office: SSPA 239

Phone: (562) 985-5289

Email: Larry.George@csulb.edu

I am Professor Emeritus of Political Science at California State University, Long Beach, and currently a Visiting Research Scholar at UCLA.  I specialize in theories of international politics and the construction of political identities through the scapegoating of vulnerable groups.  I received my B.A. from the University of California, Irvine, and my M.A. and Ph.D. from the Princeton University Program in Political Philosophy.  I am currently writing on what I call pharmacotic politics: the way that political scapegoating functions as medicine, poison, and addictive drug for the body politic.

Select Publications

  • Aggie Hirst and Larry N. George, “Pharmacotic Wargames: Military Play as Ritual Sacrifice,” Security Dialogue Volume 55, Issue 1 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1177/09670106231212041
  • Public lecture on Thucydides, Democracy, and Empire at St. John’s College: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrlephwZcaA
  • Larry George, “Commentary on ‘Changing the Political Climate: A Transitional Imperative,'” Great Transition Initiative (September 2014)
    http://www.greattransition.org/commentary/larry-george-changing-the-political-climate-richard-falk.
  • Larry N. George, “Leo Strauss’ Squid Ink: Zetetic Political Philosophy and Esoteric Reading” in Tony Burns and James Connelly, The Legacy of Leo Strauss (2010)
  • Larry N. George, “American Insecurities and the Ontopolitics of US Pharmacotic Wars” in Francois Debrix and Mark Lacy, Eds., The Geopolitics of American Insecurity (2009)
  • Larry N. George, “Review of Anne Norton, Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire,” Political Theory, Vol. 34, No. 3, June, 2006
  • Larry N. George, “Pharmacotic War and the Ethical Dilemmas of Engagement,” International Relations, Vol 19, No. 1 (2005): 115-25
  • Larry N. George, “On Pharmacotic War,” Chapter 11 of Bulent Gokay and R.B.J. Walker, Eds., 11 September 2001: War, Terror, and Judgement (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2003, pp. 155-75.
  • Larry N. George, “The Pharmacotic War on Terrorism”, Theory, Culture, and Society Vol. 19, No. 4, August, 2002
  • Larry N. George, “9-11: Pharmacotic War”, Theory and Event (Johns Hopkins University Press) Vol. 6, No. 1 (2001)
  • Larry N. George, “Seguid Vuestro Jefe: The Polemic Supplement and the Pharmacotic Presidency”. Theory and Event (Johns Hopkins University Press) Vol. 2, No. 3 (1998).
  • The Constitution and the Conduct of American Foreign Policy (Coedited with David Adler), Foreword by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996)
  • “Democratic Theory and the Conduct of American Foreign Policy”, Ch. 2 of Adler and George, Constitution and the Conduct of American Foreign Policy, pp. 57-81
  • “’The Fair Fame of the Dead’: The Precession of War Simulacra and the Reconstruction of Post-Cold War Conservatism”, Ch. 3 of Frederick M. Dolan and Thomas L. Dumm, Eds., Rhetorical Republic: Governing Representations in American Politics (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993)
  • Larry N. George, “Tocqueville’s Caveat: Centralized Executive Foreign Policy & American Democracy”, Polity, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Spring, 1990), pp. 419-441
  • “Realism and Internationalism in the Gulf of Venezuela”, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Vol. 30, Issue 4 (Winter, 1988-89), pp. 139-70
  • “La Decadencia del Dragon: U.S. Hegemonic Decline and the Future of Interamerican Relations”, International Relations, Vol. IX, No. 3, May, 1988