Robert Pape a passé sa thèse de sciences politiques à l'université de Chicago en 1988. Doctorant, il était assistant pour un cours du John Mearsheimer, connu pour ses positions réalistes. Pape a ensuite enseigné au Collège Darmouth (1991-1999) puis à la School of Advanced Airpower Studies, une école militaire, de 1996 à 1999. Depuis, il est enseignant à l'université de Chicago.
Coercive Air Power. University of Chicago, 1988. (Dissertation)
Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War. Cornell University Press, 1996. (ISBN0-8014-3134-4) (hardcover). (ISBN0-8014-8311-5) (paperback). Debated in Security Studies 7.2 (hiver 1997-98) p.93-214 et 7.3 (Spring 1998) p.182-228.
Precision and Purpose: Debating Robert A. Pape's Bombing to Win, edited by Jonathan Frankel. Frank Cass Publishers, 2004. (ISBN0-7146-8108-3) (not yet published)
"Correspondence: Evaluation Economic Sanctions," with David A. Balwin International Security 23.2 (Fall 1998) p.189-198.
"The Determinants of International Moral Action," International Organization 53.4 (Autumn 1999).
"Explaining Costly International Moral Action : Britain's Sixty-year Campaign Against the Atlantic Slave Trade," International Organization 53.4 (1999) p.631-668. (avec Chaim D. Kaufmann).
"Our Iraq Policy is not Working," New York Times February 24 (2001) p.A-13.