Hilsman turned to academia and became a research associate and lecturer in international politics at the Center of International Studies at Princeton University from 1953 to 1956 and a part-time lecturer and research associate at the Washington Center of Foreign Policy Research, which was affiliated with the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, from 1957 to 1961. In 1956, he published the book "Strategic Intelligence and National Decisions". Based upon an expanded version of his dissertation, it became well thought of in government circles and entered the permanent White House collection. He was also a Rockefeller Fellow and a lecturer on international relations at Columbia University in 1958.