Matthew Connelly
Profile
Matthew Connelly is Professor of International and Global History at Columbia University. His work explores how governments manage information, secrecy, and risk in the modern world. Since 2016, he has served as Co-Director of Columbia University’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy.
Research and Projects
Professor Connelly is the Principal Investigator of the History Lab, a pioneering research project that uses data science to analyze state secrecy, focusing on intelligence, surveillance, and weapons of mass destruction.
From 2009 to 2013, he directed the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative, which examined the history and future of planetary threats including nuclear war, pandemics, and climate change.
Publications
Connelly is the author of several acclaimed books:
A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria’s Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era, winner of five prizes.
Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population, named an Economist and Financial Times Book of the Year.
The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets (Random House, 2023), shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize.
His scholarship appears in leading journals including Nature Human Behaviour, Annals of Applied Statistics, Comparative Studies in Society and History, The International Journal of Middle East Studies, The American Historical Review, Revue française d’histoire d’Outre-mer, Journal of Global History, and Past & Present.
Teaching and Academic Roles
At Columbia, Professor Connelly teaches courses such as “The History of the End of the World” and “The Future as History.”
He has previously held faculty appointments at the University of Michigan and the London School of Economics (LSE), and visiting positions at the University of Oslo, University of Sydney, Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, and Fundação Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro.
Critical Acclaim
“A brilliant, deeply unsettling look at the history and inner workings of ‘the dark state’… this book could not be more important.” — Eric Schlosser, New York Times best-selling author of Command and Control
“An incisive, unexpected account of the history and practice of official secrecy… By showing the corrosive effects of state secrecy, he makes the case for a different attitude to public information.” — Anne Applebaum, New York Times best-selling author of Twilight of Democracy
Education
Ph.D. History – Yale University
B.A. History – Columbia University
Research Topics
International and Global History • State Secrecy • Intelligence and Surveillance • Global Crises and Planetary Threats