Brian Klaas


Brian Paul Klaas is an American political scientist, a contributing writer at The Atlantic, and an associate professor in global politics at University College London.
He co-authored How to Rig an Election and authored Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us and Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters. Klaas was recently named one of the 25 top thinkers globally for 2025 by Prospect magazine.

Early life and education

Klaas is from Golden Valley, Minnesota. He earned a BA from Carleton College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned an MPhil degree in political science from St. Antony's College, University of Oxford. In 2015, he completed his DPhil in political science at New College, University of Oxford with his thesis ''Bullets over ballots: How electoral exclusion increases the risk of coups d'état and civil wars.''

Career

After completing his DPhil, he was a Fellow in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics. In 2010, he was policy director and deputy campaign manager for Mark Dayton's successful bid for governor of Minnesota in 2010.
Klaas has been a frequent commentator in the media on US foreign policy and democratization. His articles have been published in The New York Times in 2015, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs in 2016, Foreign Policy, the Los Angeles Times in 2017, and The Guardian in 2016, He appears regularly on MSNBC, CNBC, BBC, CNN and other outlets.
Klaas has been an associate professor in global politics at University College London since 2020.

Publications