Pierre Atlas
O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Expert Bio
Pierre Atlas teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the Public Affairs and Criminal Justice programs in the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI. A comparative political scientist by training, Atlas devoted much of his academic career to studying and writing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and other conflicts and conflict resolution.
More recently, his comparative research and publications have examined how the legacy of the North American frontier helps explain contemporary political differences between the United States and Canada on issues such as Indigenous policy, the role of government, and gun laws and gun culture.
Before joining IUPUI fall 2021, Atlas was a professor of political science at Marian University and, for 17 years, served as the founding director of the Richard G. Lugar Franciscan Center for Global Studies, where he created and directed Marian’s interdisciplinary global studies program and its annual speaker series. There, he taught courses in comparative politics, American politics, international relations, global studies, peace and justice studies, and criminal justice. He writes a monthly opinion column for the Indianapolis Business Journal and, before that, was an Indianapolis Star opinion columnist for 16 years.
Areas of Expertise
U.S. foreign policy, Middle East politics, Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict, civil wars and ethnic conflicts, terrorism, U.S. and Canada, gun culture and politics of gun control.