Peter F. Cowhey is the Qualcomm Professor of Communications and Technology Policy and Dean at the University of California, San Diego's Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS). He is an internationally recognized expert in telecommunications and information policy and markets who also is a leader in building cooperative international arrangements for the management of security and economics issues.

Cowhey joined UCSD's faculty in 1976 and became dean of IR/PS in July 2002. He was the director of the University of California system-wide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) from 1999-2006. He is currently co-leader of the IGCC project on biological threats and public policy funded by the Carnegie Corporation. He holds a B.A. in foreign services from Georgetown University, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

From 1985 to 1986 Professor Cowhey served as a member of the international planning group of AT&T International. After that he served as a member of the international telecom advisory board of A.T. Kearney where he advised on numerous client matters concerning the global industry. In 1994 Cowhey took leave from UC San Diego to join the Federal Communications Commission as the Commission's Senior Counselor for International Economic and Competition Policy. Later he became Chief of the International Bureau of the FCC and he led the Commission's work in the WTO negotiations on basic telecommunications services and new competition rules for international telecom services (including the Internet).

He has served as an adviser to major companies in the telecommunications and information technology industries and to leading international institutions. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Grameen Foundation USA. He has also served as chairman of the board of Digital Partners, a global non-profit organization.