​Michael Tierney

I am a Professor in the Department of Government at William & Mary. I also direct William & Mary's Global Research Institute and I am a Co-PI on the Teaching, Research and International Policy (TRIP) project. I am a co-founder of the AidData Research Lab. I teach courses on International Relations, International Organizations, Development Policy, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Policymaking in Comparative Perspective. I’m currently working on three research projects. The first uses open source data to explain the allocation and effectiveness development finance from China. The second explores the impact of teaching and research on the behavior of policymakers and practitioners. The third project uses methods of participant observation to describe and experience the globalization of multi-grained beverages. My research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the World Bank, the United Nations University, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. More details can be found on my CV.

Books & Special Issues

Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China's
​Overseas Development Program

Bridging the Theory-Practice Divide in
​International Relations

Delegation and Agency in
​International Organizations

Greening Aid: Understanding the 
Environmental Impact of Development Assistance

Special Issue on International Organizations and
​Development Finance

Research Labs

AidData is a research lab at William & Mary's Global Research Institute. We equip policymakers and practitioners with better evidence to improve how sustainable development investments are targeted, monitored, and evaluated.

The TRIP Project gathers data and publishes analysis on the discipline of international relations. We are particularly interested in how scholars and policy makers use IR research to make sense of contemporary international politics.