Dipak K. Gupta

Dipak K. Gupta is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science at San Diego State University and the Fred J. Hansen Professor of Peace Studies. He is also the Director of the International Security and Conflict Resolution, a multidisciplinary undergraduate program. In 2007, Professor Gupta, along with Ron Bee and Ronald King help secure a $1.7 million grant from the Hansen Foundation to start Hansen Summer Institute on Leadership and International Cooperation. This grant will allow 20 college students from conflict zones of the world to come to San Diego for a three-week long educational program on conflict resolution. These students will be joined by 10 local students for mutual understanding, cooperation, and development of leadership in their respective countries.

In 1997, he was awarded the Albert W. Johnson Distinguished Lecturer, the highest research award for the university and was the "Professor of the Year" in 1994. His areas of expertise include ethnic conflict, collective action, public policy analysis, and quantitative methods. Born in India, Professor Gupta received Master's degrees in Economics from Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, India, and University of Pittsburgh. He earned his Ph.D. in the area of Economic and Social Development from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at University of Pittsburgh.

Gupta has been a visiting scholar at St. Antony's College, Oxford University, El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City, Leiden University in the Netherlands, Fudan University in Shanghai, China and the Terrorism Prevention Branch at the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) in Vienna, Austria. He was also awarded a summer fellowship in the International Studies Program at the Hoover Institution for War, Peace, and Revolution, at Stanford University. He received a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for International Politics and Economics in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Professor Gupta is the author of seven books, including: Who Are the Terrorists? (A book for young readers) Chelsea House Publishers, 2006; Terrorism and Homeland Security (2005) (ed.) Wadsworth; Path to Collective Madness: A Study in Social Order and Political Pathology, (Praeger, 2001); Analyzing Public Policy: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2001); Clash of Identities (San Diego State University Press, 1998); Decisions by the Numbers: An Introduction to Quantitative Techniques for Public Policy Analysis and Management. Prentice-Hall (1994); and The Economics of Political Violence: The Impact of Political Instability on Economic Growth (Praeger, 1990). Beside these books, Prof. Gupta has published over 80 articles in scholarly journals, research monographs, edited volumes and newspapers. He has also been invited by the Prime Minister’s office of Norway, the foreign ministries of Sweden, the Netherlands, and was among the invitees of the Safe Democracy forum in Madrid, convened by the King of Spain.