Michael Horowitz is primarily interested in international conflict and security issues.  He is also interested in the intersection of religion and international relations, the role of leaders in international politics, and international security issues in East Asia.  Professor Horowitz spent the 2006-2007 academic year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.  He completed his PhD in the Department of Government at Harvard University, where his dissertation examined the diffusion of military power and the consequences for international politics. His other academic projects include studies of how attributes of international leaders influence their decision-making concerning international conflict, the empirical impact of weapons of mass destruction proliferation on international behavior, North Korean negotiating patterns, and U.S.-Australian relations.  Professor Horowitz was the Sidney R. Knafel Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs in 2005–2006. During the 2004–2005 academic year, Professor Horowitz was a predoctoral fellow at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard. He has previously worked at Science Applications International Corporation and at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as a Research Assistant in the International Security Program. He has also served as a consultant for the Department of Defense on a range of international security issues.  His work has been published in The Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Journal of Strategic Studies, Orbis, and The Washington Quarterly.

His teaching interests include courses on warfare, religion, the international security environment, and the use of statistics to study international conflict.