Patrick A. Mello is Assistant Professor of International Security at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Humboldt University Berlin and a Habilitation in Political Science (venia legendi) from the Technical University of Munich.
Previously, he was Visiting Scholar and Interim Franz Haniel Professor for Public Policy at the Willy Brandt School of the University of Erfurt and Research Associate at the Chair of European and Global Governance at the Munich School of Politics and Public Policy of the Technical University of Munich.
His research focuses on international and comparative politics, foreign and security policy, and comparative methods. His books include Democratic Participation in Armed Conflict: Military Involvement in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design and Application (Georgetown University Press, 2021), translated into Japanese as 質的比較分析 (QCA): リサーチ・デザインと実践 (Chikura Publishing, 2023). He is also the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Foreign Policy Analysis Methods (2023).
Since 2018, he has been editorial board member of Foreign Policy Analysis (Oxford University Press/ International Studies Association) and Contemporary Security Policy (Taylor & Francis). In 2022, he was elected to serve on the Ethics Committee of the German Political Science Association (DVPW), for a five-year term. In 2024, he joined the editorial board of International Studies Quarterly (Oxford University Press/ International Studies Association). In 2025, he was appointed Chair of the Committee on Dissertation Completion Fellowships of the International Studies Association (ISA), for a one-year term.
