Né en 1945 à Sulitjelma, Geir Lundestad étudie l'histoire à l'Université d'Oslo et à l'Université de Tromsø. En 1970, il y obtient respectivement un Candidatus philologiæ (équivalent au DEA en Arts et Lettres dans les universités norvégiennes et danoises), puis un doctorat en 1976. De 1974 à 1990, il occupe les positions de lecteur et de professeur à l'Université de Tromsø. Il devient directeur de l'Institut Nobel en 1990.
The American Non-Policy Towards Eastern Europe 1943-1947, (Oslo - New York, 1975, réimpression 1978)
America, Scandinavia, and the Cold War 1945-1949, (New York - Oslo, 1980)
East, West, North, South: Major Developments in International Politics Since 1945, (Oslo - Oxford, 1987, updated in 1991, 1996, 1999 and 2004) English, Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, Chinese and Turkish editions.
The American "Empire" and Other Studies of US Foreign Polict in Comparative Perspective. (Oxford - Oslo, 1990)
Beyond the Cold War: New Dimensions in International Relations, (avec Odd Arne Westad, Oslo - Oxford, 1993)
The Fall of Great Powers, Peace, Stability, and Legitimacy, Lundestad, Oxford - Oslo, 1994)
"Empire " by Integration: The United States and European Integration 1945-1997, (Oxford, 1998.) Japanese edition 2005.
No End to Alliance. The United States and Western Europe: Past, Present, and Future, Lundestad, Macmillan 1998.
“The Nobel Peace Prize” in Agneta Wallin Levinovitz and Nils Ringertz, eds., The Nobel Prize. The First 100 years, (Londres – Singapour, 2001).
War and Peace in the 20th Century and Beyond , avec Olav Njølstad, Singapour, 2002
The United States and Western Europe Since 1945: From “Empire” by Invitation to Transatlantic Drift, (Oxford, 2003, paperback 2005), Norwegian edition 2004.
Just Another Major Crisis? The United States and Europe Since 2000, Lundestad, Oxford 2008
The Rise and Decline of the American "Empire". Power and its Limits in Comparative Perspective, Oxford, 2012
International Relations Since the end of the Cold War. New & Old Dimensions in International Relations, Lundestad, Oxford, 2013
Europamérique : États-Unis et Europe de l'Ouest de 1945 à nos jours [« The United States and Western Europe Since 1945: From "Empire" by Invitation to Transatlantic Drift »] (trad. de l'anglais), Paris, Eyrolles, , 455 p. (ISBN978-2-212-54645-3), préface de Pascal Boniface