dr. Patrick A. Mello

Patrick A. Mello pursues two complementary lines of research: (1) substantive research on the domestic politics and politicisation of international security, and (2) methodological research advancing Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as a set-theoretic approach to descriptive and causal inference.

His books include Democratic Participation in Armed Conflict: Military Involvement in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), which received the Best Dissertation Award of the German Political Science Association, 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).

He is editorial board member of International Studies Quarterly, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Contemporary Security Policy. In 2025, he was appointed Chair of the Committee on Dissertation Completion Fellowships of the International Studies Association (ISA), for a one-year term. In 2022, he was elected to serve on the Ethics Committee of the German Political Science Association (DVPW) for a five-year term.

Patrick A. Mello currently serves as methodological consultant, providing guidance on QCA for a four-year research project at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania (2025-2028). The project aims to better understand the complex interplay between contextual and intervention features in case delivery for patients that undergo invasive mechanical ventilation. The QCA component is part of multi-method research design that involves nine researchers across five domains.

Patrick A. Mello is engaged in multiple teaching programmes at the bachelor and master level at VU Amsterdam. At the bachelor's, he coordinates and teaches “Qualitative Research and Methods in Political Science” for the Bachelor's Political Science. Previously he coordinated “International Security” in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) programme.

At the master's level, he coordinates “Applying Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Political Science”, where he also teaches a module on “Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)” for the Master's in Political Science. He also contributes to the interdisciplinary Master in Law and Politics of International Security (LPIS), where he co-teaches “Theories and Approaches to War and Collective Security”.

Beyond his teaching at VU Amsterdam, Patrick A. Mello regularly offers international methods training, including a week-long workshop on QCA at the Summer School in Social Sciences Methods at the Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, Switzerland, which he has taught since 2016, as well as workshops on QCA at various international universities.

• Foreign Policy Analysis (Oxford University Press) | Oxford | Editorial board member | 2018-01-01 - present
• Contemporary Security Policy (Taylor & Francis) | London | Editorial board member | 2018-01-01 - present
• Ethics Committee, German Political Science Association | Berlin | Elected committee member | 2022-11-24 - 2027-10-31
• International Studies Quarterly (Oxford University Press) | Oxford | Editorial board member | 2024-01-01 - present
• Chair of the Committee on Dissertation Completion Fellowships, International Studies Association | Storrs, Connecticut | Commissaris | 2025-03-01 - present
• University of Pennsylvania (Perelman School of Medicine) | Philadelphia, PA | Adviseur | 2026-01-01 - 2029-05-31

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