[5] Before joining the Stanford faculty in 1987, Sagan was a lecturer in the Department of Government at Harvard University and served as special assistant to the director of the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon.

Sagan writes in the book, "the United States and the Soviet Union survived the Cold War and did not use their massive nuclear-weapons arsenals during the period's repeated crises.

Other publications include "The Case for No First Use" in Survival (June 2009); "A Call for Global Nuclear Disarmament" in Nature (July 2012); "Atomic Aversion: Experimental Evidence on Taboos, Traditions, and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons" with Daryl G. Press and Benjamin A. Valentino in The American Political Science Review (February 2013); and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences occasional paper, "A Worst Practices Guide to Insider Threats: Learning from Past Mistakes," (2014), with Matthew Bunn.

[1] The award recognizes a person whose "singular intellect, assertiveness, and insight most challenge conventional wisdom and intellectual and organizational complacency" in the international studies community.

He teaches a popular course with Allen Weiner called "The Face of Battle," in which students walk key battlefields from American history, performing individual historical roles in staff rides and meeting with national security professionals.