Sherman W. Garnett

Biography

Sherman W. Garnett is a Professor in James Madison College, teaching courses in international security, Russia and the former USSR, nuclear weapons, and literature and politics. He will be teaching a freshman writing seminar this spring on interwar Vilnius and Nazi occupation through the eyes of Czesław Miłosz and Chaim Grade. He is currently working on a book on the political thought of Czesław Miłosz. Dr. Garnett was previously Dean of the College for more than two decades, stepping down in May 2020. Before becoming Dean, he was a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, specializing in the foreign and security policies of Russia, Ukraine and other states of the former USSR.   He is the author or co-author of works on Russian foreign policy, European security, and the foreign and security policies of Eurasia. He has lectured at leading universities and institutes in the United States and throughout the world and advised the U.S. Government on arms control and security issues. From 1983 to 1994, Dr. Garnett worked in a variety of positions in the US Government, specializing in arms control and the former USSR, ending his service as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. Dr. Garnett received his Ph.D. in Russian Literature from the University of Michigan in 1982.  He has an MA in Russian and East European Studies from Yale University and a BA in Political Philosophy from James Madison College at Michigan State University.