He teaches courses in international security, political communication, and U.S. military intervention. He is the editor of American Foreign Policy and the Politics of Fear: Threat Inflation since 9/11, and the companion volume to that work, Why Did the United States Invade Iraq? Prior to arriving at George Mason, Thrall was an associate professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where he directed the Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Administration programs. He received his PhD in political science from MIT.