Douglas C. Foyle's teaching and research specializations include U.S. Foreign Policy, international security, and the influence of public opinion and elections on foreign policy.  In addition to other articles and book chapters, his book Counting the Public In: Presidents, Public Opinion, and Foreign Policy (Columbia University Press, 1999) considers the role that public opinion has on American foreign policy decision making. He is currently working on projects examining the foreign policy attitudes of millennials, the public’s views about the extent to which leaders should consider public opinion when making foreign policy decisions, and a book examining the influence of elections in foreign policy decision making.

He is an Associate Professor of Government and a recipient of Wesleyan’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching (2009). He held the Douglas J. and Midge Bowen Bennet Associate Professor of Government chair from January 1, 2008 to June 30, 2013.  He completed his A.B. in political science at Stanford University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science with specialties in the fields of international relations and international security at Duke University.  He joined Wesleyan in 1998 after a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Mershon Center at The Ohio State University.

He currently serves as Chair (2019-) of the Board of Education in Glastonbury, Connecticut, after acting as Vice-Chair (2017-2019) and Secretary (2015-2017).  First elected in 2009 and in his third term, he also served previously as the Curriculum Committee Chair and Facilities Committee Co-Chair.