Robert G Shaver Adjunct Assistant Professor

Education

Robert Shaver holds a BA in liberal arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis (2009), and a dual-degree MA in comparative and international studies from American University in Washington and Korean studies from Korea University in Seoul, South Korea (2016). He is in the final year of a PhD in global and comparative politics at the New School for Social Research in New York.

Research

Robert Shaver studies historical international relations and historical international political economy. His dissertation studies the history of most-favored nation (MFN) treaty-making, with particular focus on the network of bilateral MFN treaties created following the 1860 Cobden-Chevalier treaty, which is sometimes referred to as the world’s first modern free trade agreement. This network was the first attempt at an international trade regime structured by convention, is often considered to have catalyzed the world’s first experiment with globalization. Other research interests include state-formation, liberalism, and development.