Directory Entry For: Rodger Payne

Biography

Rodger A. Payne is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville, co-director of the Center for Asian Democracy, and an Associated Faculty member with the Film Studies and Production minor. Payne was on sabbatical during fall 2025 and spring 2026. In spring term 2026 he was a visiting scholar at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at University of Utrecht (The Netherlands) working on global environmental governance and problem-shifting. His project concerned the prospects for international cooperation on climate change given United States opposition.

With Nayef Samhat, Payne is the coauthor of Democratizing Global Politics; Discourse Norms, International Regimes, and Political Community (State University of New York Press, 2004) and the author of more than 50 academic journal articles and book chapters. His most recent publications include a study of the persuasive appeal of the film Don't Look Up, an empirical investigation of the partisan support for the climate change provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the threat America First poses to various bilateral and multilateral relationships and norms, including the human rights and climate change regimes, as well as the western security community. 

From 1994-2011, Payne directed the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Payne also served as his Department’s Chair for eight years. He previously taught at Northwestern University and was a visiting research fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, the University of Chicago’s Program on International Politics, Economics, and Security, and University of Dundee's Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR). During fall 2018, he served as Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Canadian-U.S. relations at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. 

In addition to University of Dundee's ISSR and University of Utrecht's Copernicus Institute, Payne has received research funding from the International Peace and Security Studies Program of the Social Science Research Council (funded by the MacArthur Foundation) and various internal sources at UofL including the Center for Asian Democracy and College of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the two-person 1983 National Debate Tournament championship team from the University of Kansas. Payne completed an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland and has an M.A. degree in Communication from Baylor University. 

Research Interests

Earth System Governance

Global Politics Through Film

International Relations

International Security

Multilateralism

Narratives in Global Politics

Politics of Climate Change

Threat inflation in security politics

Degrees and Certifications

Publications

All Scholarly and Creative Works