Mary Elise Sarotte

Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies

Biography

An expert in the history of international relations, Mary Elise Sarotte is the inaugural holder of the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professorship of Historical Studies. Professor Sarotte is also a research associate at Harvard University's Center for European Studies. Sarotte earned her AB in History and Science at Harvard and her PhD in History at Yale University. She is the author or editor of six books, including Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate (2021), which was selected as one of Foreign Affairs' Best Books of 2021 and Financial Times's Best Books to Read in 2022. Professor Sarotte's other recent publications, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall (2014) and 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe (2009) were both selected as Financial Times Books of the Year, among other awards. Following graduate school, Professor Sarotte served as a White House Fellow, then joined the faculty of the University of Cambridge, where she received tenure before accepting an offer to return to the United States to teach at USC. Professor Sarotte is a former Humboldt Scholar, a former member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.