Thomas Ambrosio

Professor

Faculty

Political Science and Public Policy

Dr. Thomas Ambrosio

Professor Ambrosio is the NDSU Pre-Law Advisor and teaches courses on the law at the intersection of the international and domestic realms. (Contact him for pre-law advising!)

Areas of Study & Research

He has a wide-ranging research agenda spanning geopolitics and international relations, authoritarianism, the former Soviet Union, and boardgames which recreate the past on the tabletop.

Courses Taught

International Law

International Criminal Law

National Security Law

International Politics

Terrorism

Awards & Honors

Faculty Lectureship, NDSU, 2018. (Recognizes sustained professional excellence in teaching, scholarly achievement, and service among current faculty at NDSU.)

Outstanding Service Award, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, NDSU, 2017. (Awarded for service activities.)

Apple Polisher Award, Bison Ambassadors, 2017. (Student organization award for teaching.)

Outstanding Educator, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, NDSU, 2011. (Awarded in recognition for all three areas of the University’s mission: teaching, research, and service.)

Outstanding Research Award, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, NDSU, 2007. (Awarded for research activities.)

Blue Key Distinguished Educator Award, NDSU, 2007. (Student organization award for teaching.)

Publications

Tabletop History: Engaging with the Past through Historically-Structured Boardgames. Book, sole author. Under contract with Routledge.

Encyclopedia of Authoritarianism. Encyclopedia, co-edited with Stephen G.F. Hall. Under contract with Edward Elgar.

“The Architecture of China-Russia Partnership: An International Agreements Approach.” Chapter for Handbook on China-Russia Relations, sole author.

“When Children Join the Coalition: Apparent Hereditary Grooming as a Power-Preservation Tool in Post-Soviet Autocracies,” Europe-Asia Studies, vol.77, no.1 (January 2025): 107-132. With Jakob Tolstrup (first author).

“Boardgaming After the Fall of Kabul: Player and Designer (Re)Engagement with A Distant Plain,” Rethinking History, vol.28, no.3 (2024): 327-356.

“The Wicked Problems of This War of Mine: Exploring Ethical Dilemmas Through Boardgaming,” Northern Plains Ethics Journal, vol.11, no.1 (Fall 2023): 73-104.

“Performing the Cold War through the ‘the Best Board Game on the Planet’: The Ludic Geopolitics of Twilight Struggle,” Geopolitics, vol.28, no.2 (2023), 846-878. With Jonathan Ross (undergraduate, second author).

"The War on Terror Beyond the Barrel of a Gun: The Procedural Rhetorics of the Boardgame Labyrinth,” Media, War & Conflict vol.16, no.4 (2022): 495-515. With Jonathan Ross (undergraduate, second author).

“Belarus, Kazakhstan and Alliance Security Dilemmas in the Former Soviet Union: Intra-Alliance Threat and Entrapment After the Ukraine Crisis,” Europe-Asia Studies vol.72, no.9 (2022): 1700-1728.