Alexander Wendt, professor of political science and Ralph D. Mershon Professor of International Security at the Mershon Center for International Studies, was selected as the scholar who has had the greatest influence on the field of international relations in the past 20 years by a 2011 survey of international scholars across twenty countries. The survey was part of the Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) Project done by the Theory and Practice of International Relations at the College of William and Mary. Wendt was also named one of the top scholars who have produced the best work in the field of international relations over the past 20 years.

TRIP researchers surveyed international relations scholars in the U.S. and 19 other countries regarding the field of international relations and their opinions on pressing public issues. This is the 4th such survey that TRIP has conducted since 2004 and one part of a larger TRIP project designed to study the relationships among teaching, research, and foreign policy.

Wendt has research and teaching interests in international relations theory, global governance, political theory, and the philosophy of social science. His current research focuses on the inevitability of a world state, and on the idea of a quantum social science.

He is the author of Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge University Press, 1999), named Best Book of the Decade by the International Studies Association in 2006, and articles in International Organization, American Political Science Review, Review of International Studies, European Journal of International Relations, International Security, and Politics and Society. His recent publication includes New Systems Theories of World Politics (Palgrave Studies in International Relations), edited with Mathias Albert and Lars-Erik Cederman.

The survey also named John Mueller, professor of political science and Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies, Mershon Center, as among scholars doing the most interesting research in international relations over the past five years.

Mueller's research interests include international politics, foreign policy, defense policy, public opinion, democratization, economic history, post-Communism, terrorism, musical theater, and dance history. He is the author of Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda (2012) and Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them (2009)