Francis J. Gavin is an American historian currently serving as the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

[1] Prior to his tenure at Johns Hopkins SAIS, Gavin was a Professor of Political Science at MIT, where he also served as the inaugural Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear Security Policy Studies.

From 2005 until 2010, Gavin directed The American Assembly's multiyear, national initiative, The Next Generation Project: U.S.

[2] Gavin is Senior Fellow of the Clements Program in History, Strategy, and Statecraft, a Distinguished Scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, a senior advisor to the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and a life-member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

He was previously an Associate of the Managing the Atom Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.