Denise Garcia

Professor Denise Garcia is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the International Affairs Program at Northeastern University in Boston and a Nobel Peace Institute Fellow. She researches on international law, and the questions of lethal robotics and artificial intelligence, global governance of security, and the formation of new international norms and their impact on peace and security.

She was the recipient of Northeastern’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities Outstanding Teaching Award in 2016. In 2017, Garcia was appointed to the International Panel for the Regulation of Autonomous Weapons (Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Garcia teaches the annual course titled “Global Governance of International Security and the World Politics of Diplomacy” at the United Nations in Geneva, in cooperation with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research and many other partners. In 2016, she testified to the United Nations on the question of lethal autonomous weapons and their impact on peace and security.

Author of Small Arms and Security – New Emerging International Norms, and Disarmament Diplomacy and Human Security – Norms, Regimes, and Moral Progress in International Relations, her articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, the European Journal of International Security, International Affairs, Ethics & International Affairs, Third World Quarterly, Global Policy Journal, International Relations, and elsewhere.

She is proud to have held the title of Sadeleer Family Research Faculty at Northeastern (2011-2016). Prior to joining the faculty of Northeastern University in 2006 (tenured in 2013), Garcia held a three-year appointment at Harvard, at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and the World Peace Foundation’s Intra-State Conflict Program. She holds a Ph.D. in international relations and international law from Institut des Hautes Études Internationales et du Développement (Graduate Institute for International Studies and Development), University of Geneva, Switzerland. She is the vice-chair of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control, a member of the Academic Council of the United Nations and the Global South Unit for Mediation in Rio de Janeiro. A native of Brazil, and a naturalized citizen of the United States of America, Garcia is a devoted yogi, her hobbies include travel and surfing.

Please visit her page on Foreign Affairs: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/authors/denise-garcia.

Read Professor Garcia’s Faculty Spotlight.