Melissa Willard-Foster is an associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont. Her research interests center broadly on international conflict and U.S. foreign policy. She is especially interested in how domestic political pressures cause policymakers to pursue strategies that lead them into costly conflicts. She is the author of Toppling Foreign Governments (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019) which surveys 133 cases of foreign-imposed regime change to explain why policymakers perpetually turn to regime change, despite its dubious record of success. She is currently working on a project that examines foreign policy campaign promises in U.S. presidential elections. Willard-Foster holds degrees from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, the University of Chicago, and UCLA. Before coming to UVM, she was a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs. She teaches classes on international relations, international security, foreign military intervention, and U.S. foreign policy.