CDDRL 2020 Year in Review

The year 2020 was a turbulent one for CDDRL, as it was for millions of people around the globe. It started normally enough with the publication of Larry Diamond’s Ill Winds: Saving democracy from Russian rage, Chinese ambition, and American complacency, and regular meetings of our weekly research seminar. The Poverty and Governance Program began producing a blizzard of research findings from its accumulated years of data collection. Things changed dramatically, however, in March with the shutdown of the university and shift to online meetings and teaching. Both Stanford and the nation saw a dramatic mobilization of people pushing for racial justice after the George Floyd killing in late May, and many of those in and around CDDRL were highly involved in the November 3 election as analysts, commentators, advocates, and of course voters. The pandemic itself became a focus of research for many of our faculty and scholars, since it provided a natural experiment in governance systems.

The health crisis unfortunately forced us to postpone our flagship Draper Hills Summer Fellows program, and moved other programs like the Leadership Academy for Development online. The new class of Ukrainian Emerging Leaders was selected, but were not allowed to come to campus in the fall. Our honors program had to delay its yearly visit to Washington in September, and our pre- and postdocs and visiting scholars unfortunately saw their interactions curtailed.

There were some benefits to the pandemic nonetheless: our weekly seminar, whose attendance was formerly limited by the size of our conference room, was suddenly open to people around the world, a huge number of whom used Zoom to listen to our speakers. And CDDRL was able to add a new program on Global Infrastructure, led by Mike Bennon, to its roster of research activities.

We are looking forward to being able to return to some semblance of normal face-to-face activities in 2021, though our ability to do so will obviously be out of our control. In the meantime, we hope to see you at one of our events online.

Sincerely, 
Francis Fukuyama, 
Mosbacher Director, CDDRL

ARAB REFORM AND DEMOCRACY PROGRAM

The Program on Arab Reform and Democracy (ARD) continued to serve an important forum for examining cutting-edge research on political and social development in the Arab world. Notwithstanding the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ARD seminar series shifted to an online format and expanded its outreach remarkably. It hosted a number of timely seminars discussing the impact of COVID-19 on the politics and societies of the region. Bard College Historian Ziad Abu-Rish analyzed the trajectory of Lebanon's Uprising and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the contemporary political scene. CDDRL Visiting Scholar Nancy Okail examined authoritarianism responses to the Covid-19 crisis with a focus on Egypt. George Washington University Political Scientist Nathan Brown and CDDRL Senior Scholar Amr Hamzawy presented their co-authored research on the impact of the pandemic on the Egyptian bureaucracy.  

This year, the ARD seminar series featured discussions on new, innovative research, including AUC Political Scientist Amr Adly’s book on the failure of market-making in Egypt, and Harvard University Historian Rosie Bsheer’s recently published book on the politics of histories in Saudi Arabia. The series also examined a variety of salient policy questions, including ones related to the state of US democracy promotion in the Middle East, and the emergence of an exclusionary, repressive “peace” in Syria.

POVERTY, VIOLENCE AND GOVERNANCE LAB

As violence spirals upward in Latin America and inequality continues to prevail, investigating the problem and shaping public impact remains an urgent and compelling priority among social scientists focused on the region. To carry out the Lab’s mission of developing methodologically-innovative, evidence-based research, we partner with government agencies and police, public policy and civil society organizations, and a network of academic researchers to produce and disseminate new knowledge on the causes and consequences of poverty, violence and poor governance. The Lab sustained an active year of research activities, publishing and other research products, and teaching and training coursework and mentorship.

Read the Lab's full end of the year review here.