Christopher K. Chase-Dunn (born January 10, 1944, Corvallis, Oregon) is an American sociologist best known for his contributions to world-systems theory.

He was chair of the Section on International Political Economy of the International Studies Association from 1984 to 1986, and chair of the Section on the Political Economy of the World-System of the American Sociological Association in 1982.

He founded the Institute for Research on World-Systems at the University of California, Riverside.

He is founding editor of the Journal of World-Systems Research, which is the official journal of the Political Economy of the World-System section of the American Sociological Association.

[3][4] Chase-Dunn is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of over a dozen books, including most notably Global Formation: Structures of The World-Economy, a major theoretical synthesis and restatement of the world-systems approach to the study of social change.