Peter J. Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter Jr. Professor at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and professor of government in the College of Arts and Sciences, has received the James Madison Award from the American Political Science Association (APSA). The award is conferred every three years to honor an American political scientist who has made a distinguished scholarly contribution to political science.
The award citation notes that Katzenstein’s work over four decades on small states, the political economy of the Global North, national security, culture and identity “and other important topics has reshaped every area of the discipline he touches. He joins ambitious theory with flexible yet exacting empirics to reorient our thinking and advance our understanding of political life.”
The committee also noted that Katzenstein’s impact extends beyond his scholarly publications. “As an editor, teacher, and president of the American Political Science Association (2008-9), he has built subfields and opened established ones to new voices. He has shaped an entire generation of political scientists through his intellectual breadth and generosity as a mentor and interlocutor.”
Katzenstein is the author, coauthor, editor and coeditor of more than 40 books and over 100 articles or book chapters; his most recent publication is “Entanglements in World Politics: The Power of Uncertainty” (Cambridge UP 2026). From 1982 to 2022 Katzenstein served as the editor of the “Cornell Studies in Political Economy,” which comprises 148 volumes.
Among Katzenstein’s other awards are the 2026 Sakip Sabanci International Research Award, the 2020 Johan Skytte Prize, APSA’s 1974 Helen Dwight Reid and 1986 Woodrow Wilson Prize and, together with Nobuo Okawara, the 1993 Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, the American Philosophical Society and the British Academy and holds six honorary degrees. At Cornell, Katzenstein received the Russell Distinguished Teaching Award in 1993 and was named a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow in 2004.
