International Development

FSI researchers consider international development from a variety of angles. They analyze ideas such as how public action and good governance are cornerstones of economic prosperity in Mexico and how investments in high school education will improve China’s economy.

They are looking at novel technological interventions to improve rural livelihoods, like the development implications of solar power-generated crop growing in Northern Benin.

FSI academics also assess which political processes yield better access to public services, particularly in developing countries. With a focus on health care, researchers have studied the political incentives to embrace UNICEF’s child survival efforts and how a well-run anti-alcohol policy in Russia affected mortality rates.

FSI’s work on international development also includes training the next generation of leaders through pre- and post-doctoral fellowships as well as the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program.

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Lina Khatib is the co-founding Head of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. She joined Stanford University in 2010 from the University of London where she was an Associate Professor. Her research is firmly interdisciplinary and focuses on the intersections of politics, media, and social factors in relation to the politics of the Middle East. She is also a consultant on Middle East politics and media and has published widely on topics such as new media and Islamism, US public diplomacy towards the Middle East, and political media and conflict in the Arab world, as well as on the political dynamics in Lebanon and Iran. She has an active interest in the link between track two dialogue and democratization policy. She is also a Research Associate at SOAS, University of London, and, from 2010-2012, was a Research Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

Lina is one of the core authors of the forthcoming Arab Human Development Report (2013) published by the UNDP, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Syria Justice and Accountability Center. She is also a founding co-editor of the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, a multidisciplinary journal concerned with politics, culture and communication in the region, and in 2009 co-edited (with Klaus Dodds) a special issue of the journal on geopolitics, public diplomacy and soft power in the Middle East. She edited the Journal of Media Practice from 2007-2010.

Paul Wise is the Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society, Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, and Senior Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.  He is Director of the Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention and a core faculty of the Centers for Health Policy and Primary Care Outcomes Research, at Stanford University.

Dr. Wise received his A.B. degree summa cum laude and his M.D. degree from Cornell University, a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and did his pediatric training at the Children's Hospital in Boston.  His former positions include serving as the Director of Emergency and Primary Care Services at the Children's Hospital, Boston, Director of the Harvard Institute for Reproductive and Child Health at Harvard Medical School, and Special Assistant to the U.S. Surgeon General.  Prior to moving to Stanford University, Dr. Wise was Vice-Chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities in the Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the academic and research base of Partners in Health.

Rajaie Batniji is a resident physician in internal medicine at Stanford and a CDDRL affiliate. His research examines the selection of priority diseases and countries in global health, and he is interested in global health financing and the priority-setting process of international institutions. His work has also examined social determinants of health in the Middle East. At FSI, Dr. Batniji is co-investigator on Global Underdevelopment Action Fund projects explaining U.S. global health financing and political causes of public health crisis.

Dr. Batniji received his doctorate in international relations (D.Phil) from Oxford University where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. He also earned a M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and M.A. and B.A. (with distinction) degrees in History from Stanford University. Dr. Batniji was previously based at Oxford's Global Economic Governance Program, and he has worked as a consultant to the World Health Organization.

Encina Ground Floor Conference Room

Lina Khatib Program Manager, Arab Reform and Democracy Program Speaker
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Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society
Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
rsd15_081_0253a.jpg MD, MPH

Dr. Paul Wise is dedicated to bridging the fields of child health equity, public policy, and international security studies. He is the Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society and Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology and Developmental Medicine, and Health Policy at Stanford University. He is also co-Director, Stanford Center for Prematurity Research and a Senior Fellow in the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, and the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. Wise is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been working as the Juvenile Care Monitor for the U.S. Federal Court overseeing the treatment of migrant children in U.S. border detention facilities.

Wise received his A.B. degree summa cum laude in Latin American Studies and his M.D. degree from Cornell University, a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and did his pediatric training at the Children’s Hospital in Boston. His former positions include Director of Emergency and Primary Care Services at Boston Children’s Hospital, Director of the Harvard Institute for Reproductive and Child Health, Vice-Chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and was the founding Director or the Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention, Stanford University School of Medicine. He has served in a variety of professional and consultative roles, including Special Assistant to the U.S. Surgeon General, Chair of the Steering Committee of the NIH Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research, Chair of the Strategic Planning Task Force of the Secretary’s Committee on Genetics, Health and Society, a member of the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, and the Health and Human Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality.

Wise’s most recent U.S.-focused work has addressed disparities in birth outcomes, regionalized specialty care for children, and Medicaid. His international work has focused on women’s and child health in violent and politically complex environments, including Ukraine, Gaza, Central America, Venezuela, and children in detention on the U.S.-Mexico border.  

Core Faculty, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Affiliated faculty at the Center for International Security and Cooperation
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Paul H. Wise Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society and CHP/PCOR Core Faculty Member; CDDRL and CISAC Affiliated Faculty Member Speaker

300 Pasteur Drive
Grant 101
Stanford, CA 94305-5109

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CDDRL Affiliated Scholar 2011-2012
Resident Physician in Internal Medicine, Stanford Medical Center
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Rajaie Batniji is a resident physician in internal medicine at Stanford and a CDDRL affiliate. His research examines the selection of priority diseases and countries in global health, and he is interested in global health financing and the priority-setting process of international institutions.  His work has also examined social determinants of health in the Middle East.  At FSI, Dr. Batniji is co-investigator on Global Underdevelopment Action Fund projects explaining U.S. global health financing and political causes of public health crisis.

Dr. Batniji received his doctorate in international relations (D.Phil) from Oxford University where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. He also earned a M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and M.A. and B.A. (with distinction) degrees in History from Stanford University.   Dr. Batniji was previously based at Oxford's Global Economic Governance Program, and he has worked as a consultant to the World Health Organization. 

Publications

Protecting Health: Thinking Small. Sidhartha Sinha and Rajaie Batniji. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2010; BLT.09.071530  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20865078

Health as human security in the occupied Palestinian territory. Rajaie Batniji, Yoke Rabai’a, Viet Nguyen-Gillham, Rita Giacaman, Eyad Sarraj, Raija Leena Punamaki, Hana Saab, and Will Boyce. Lancet 2009 373:1133-43  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19268352

Misfinancing global health: the case for transparency in disbursements and decision making. Devi Sridhar and Rajaie Batniji. Lancet 2008; 372: 1185-91  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18926279

Coordination and accountability in the World Health Assembly. Rajaie Batniji. Lancet 2008; 372: 805 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18774416

Barriers to improvement of mental health services in low-income and middle-income countries.  Benedetto Saraceno, Mark van Ommeren, Rajaie Batniji, Alex Cohen, Oye Gureje, John Mahoney, Devi Sridhar and Chris Underhill. Lancet 2007; 370:1164-74     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17804061

An Evaluation of the International Monetary Fund's Claims about Public Health. David Stuckler, Sanjay Basu, Rajaie Batniji, Anna Gilmore, Gorik Ooms, Akanksha A. Marphatia, Rachel Hammonds, and Martin McKee. International Journal of Health Services 2010; 40:327-32  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20440976

Reviving the International Monetary Fund: concerns for the health of the poor. Rajaie Batniji. International Journal of Health Services 2009; 39: 783-787    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19927415

Mental and social aspects of health in disasters: relating qualitative social science research and the sphere standard. R Batniji, M van Ommeren, B Saraceno. Social Science & Medicine 2006; 62:1853–1864  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16202495

Averting a crisis in global health: 3 actions for the G20. Rajaie Batniji & Ngaire Woods, 2009. Global Economic Governance Programme, http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/wp-content/uploads/averting-a-crisis-in-global-health.pdf.

Report of a High-Level Working Group, 11-13 May 2008. Rajaie Batniji, Devi Sridhar and Ngaire Woods, Global Economic Governance Programme, 2008, http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/project-health

Rajaie S. Batniji CDDRL Affiliated Scholar 2011-2012; Resident Physician in Internal Medicine, Stanford Medical Center Speaker
Seminars

2013 Summit Schedule

Monday, April 15

12:00 – 1:00 PM

1:30-3:00 Gunn-SIEPR Building AMENDS Talks: Impact Entrepreneurship
Session I Speakers:
Mohammad Agzar, Agam Rafaeli, Rena Zuabi, Ruchi Dana, Samer Azar, and Yad Faeq
3:00-3:45 Networking Session
3:45-5:15 AMENDS Talks: Impact Entrepreneurship


Session II Speakers:
Sabera Daqiq, Al Nasir Bellah Al-Nasli, Ali Chehade, Frank Fredericks, Ibrahim Mothana, and Sarah Mousa

Tuesday, April 16

1:30-3:00 Gunn-SIEPR Building AMENDS Talks: Education and the Environment
Session I Speakers:
Dari AlHuwail, Ghadeer al-Khenaisi, Yasmeen Makarem, Farshad Ghodoosi, and Majda Rahal
3:00-3:45 Networking Session
3:45-5:15 AMENDS Talks: Education and the Environment


Session I Speakers:
Adi Gilgi, Ala Queslati, Hamza Arsbi, Laura McAdams, Sarafina Midzik, Alia Mahmoud, and Becca Farnum

Wednesday April 17

10:00- 11:30 MacKenzie Room, Huang Engineering Center AMENDS Talks: Activism and the Art of Change
Session I Speakers:
Alana Marie Levinson, Nadia Arouri, Nargiz Azaryun, Que Newbiil, Soumaya Boughanmi, and Abdellah Yassine Boukourizia


11:30- 12:30 Networking Lunch

12:30-2:00 AMENDS Talks: Activism and the Art of Change
Session II Speakers:
Arez Hussein, Ashley Lohman, Todd Ruffner, Salma Hegab, Nicholas Glastonbury, and Nihal Saad Zaghloul

4/15 Gunn-SIEPHR Building
4/16 Gunn-SIEPHR Building
4/17 MacKenzie Room, Huang Engineering Center

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The Arab Spring revolutions may not have delivered the democratic outcomes many had hoped for but they have emboldened a generation of young leaders working to shape a new vision for the Middle East. Breaking away from traditional molds, these Arab Spring youth are leading programs where young people are taking an active role in political systems, the social sector, and the business world.

In an effort to harness the potential of this group of change-makers, cultivate a new generation of leaders committed to advancing collaborative change, and connect them to a global network to strengthen their efforts, the American and Middle East Network for Dialogue at Stanford (AMENDS) was born.

On April 13-17, AMENDS will convene its second annual conference at Stanford bringing together 37 young people from the Middle East and the U.S. who are pioneering initiatives for social transformation.

Founded by two Stanford undergraduates in the wake of the Arab Spring, AMENDS provides a virtual and in-person forum for dialogue and collaboration.

“Two years after the Arab Spring, we think it is more important than ever that young leaders have a platform that amplifies their voices,” says AMENDS co-founder Khaled Al-Shawi (BA ’13) from Bahrain.

Among the talented 2013 delegates include: a young Egyptian women working to combat sexual harassment on the streets of Cairo through community patrol groups; an entrepreneur supporting innovative and creative start-ups in Lebanon; an American artist using slam poetry to bring together urban youth; and several young activists working on peace initiatives in the region.

A student organization housed at Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, AMENDS held their inaugural conference last year. In such a short time, it has grown into a premier forum for young entrepreneurs and activists committed to social change. The group received over 300 delegate applications this year, signaling the vast untapped potential across the region and the importance of an initiative like AMENDS to support promising young talent.

“At last year’s conference, we were continually inspired by the conversations and collaborations that occurred between our delegates,” adds Elliot Stoller (BA ’13), another AMENDS co-founder from Chicago, Illinois. “This year, we hope to expand on that success by connecting with an even more global audience.”

Over five days, AMENDS delegates will participate in skill-building workshops, deliver a TED-style talk about their project, interact with Stanford faculty and scholars, and engage in networking sessions. Former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry will deliver a keynote address on April 15 and Prince Mouley Hicham ben Abdallah, a principal advisor to the organization, will address the delegates on April 13.

AMENDS participants connect to a larger network of change-makers to enhance their capacity, increase their professional networks, and heighten the visibility of their innovative projects. After the conference, AMENDS talks are posted online providing a global platform for delegates' ideas to have a much wider impact and resonance.

AMENDS talks will be held at Stanford University and are free and open to the public. To review the schedule, please visit: http://www.stanford.edu/group/amends/cgi-bin/annual-summit/2013-summit-schedule/

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Jeremy M. Weinstein, an associate professor of political science and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, received the Karl Deutsch Award from the International Studies Association (ISA).

The award recognizes scholars younger than 40 - or within 10 years of defending their dissertation - who have made the most significant contributions to the study of international relations and peace research.

Weinstein, 37, focuses his research on civil wars and political violence; ethnic politics and the political economy of development; and democracy, accountability, and political change. He is the Ford Dorsey Director of Stanford’s Center for African Studies and is also an affiliated faculty member at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law and the Center for International Security and Cooperation.

He was presented with the award on April 4 by ISA, which promotes research and education in international affairs.

Other Stanford researchers who received the award include Michael Tomz (2011), Kenneth A. Schultz (2003), and James D. Fearon (1999).

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Without a Fight is a feature length documentary film that explores how soccer can facilitate social change in Kibera, one of Africa’s largest slums.

When: Thursday, April 11th at 6pm

Where: Branner Lounge, Stanford University

RSVP: Join the event on Facebook

Dinner Provided from DARBAR Indian Restaurant

· Introduction by Sarina Beges, CDDRL Program Manager

· Post-screening Q&A with CFK-Kenya Executive Director Hillary Omala and Producer Beth-Ann Kutchma

About the Film

Footage of violent clashes fueled by polarizing national presidential elections is intertwined with profiles of youth from different religious and ethnic backgrounds as they navigate daily life and prepare for the final championship soccer game of the season. The film provides a glimpse often a very positive one into an Africa few have seen. It attempts to break stereotypes associated with people who live in extreme poverty while depicting sports as a tool that could be used to prevent violence among at-risk youth. The film made its World Premiere at the 11 MM Festival in Berlin, Germany in March 2012 and its North American Premiere at the Full Frame Documentary Festival in Durham, NC in April 2012. The soccer league is run by the international development organization,Carolina for Kibera. Watch the Film’s Trailer.

Branner Lounge, Stanford University

Sarina Beges CDDRL Program Manager Speaker
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Remarks by 


His Excellency

Ma Ying-jeou

President, Republic of China (Taiwan)
 

To be followed by a panel discussion chaired by

Professor Condoleezza Rice

with panelists

Larry Diamond
Director, CDDRL

 

Francis Fukuyama
Senior Fellow, FSI

 

Admiral Gary Roughead
Former Chief of Naval Operations
US Navy (Ret.)

 

Reception to follow.

Doors will open at 5:15pm,
and attendees should arrive before 5:50pm.


On May 20, 2008, Ma Ying-jeou was inaugurated as the 12th-term president of the Republic of China (ROC). During the presidential election Ma campaigned on a platform to revive Taiwan's flagging economy and restore core values of integrity, tolerance, and enterprising spirit. Ma secured a landslide victory with a total of 58.5 percent of the vote. The 2008 election represented Taiwan's second peaceful transfer of political power, marking a milestone in the country’s democratic development. On January 14, 2012, he was re-elected as the 13th-term president, with 51.6 percent of the vote.

President Ma graduated in 1972 from Taiwan's foremost academic institution, National Taiwan University, with a bachelor's degree from the College of Law. After earning a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from New York University in 1976, Ma received a Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1981, specializing in law of the sea and international economic law.

In his early political career, Ma Ying-jeou served as deputy director of the First Bureau of the Presidential Office, where he acted as President Chiang Ching-kuo's English interpreter and secretary; Chairman of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission of the Executive Yuan; and Minister of Justice. After teaching law at the College of Law, National Chengchi University, in 1998 Ma Ying-jeou was elected Mayor of Taipei with 51 percent of the vote, and four years he won a landslide victory for a second term with 64 percent of the vote. In 2005 he was elected chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT), again by a decisive margin, and three years later he was elected president of the Republic of China.

As President, Ma Ying-jeou has addressed the repercussions of the global financial crisis, stepping up efforts to bring about a more diversified industrial structure and to jump-start new engines for economic growth in Taiwan. President Ma has attached great importance to promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction, which has helped Taiwan’s energy efficiency to exceed 2%. Crafting a response to regional economic integration in Asia has been another key policy focus for the Ma administration. In 2010, his administration successfully negotiated an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with the People's Republic of China, a landmark in the improvement of Cross-Strait relations. President Ma's creative diplomacy has brought a significant improvement in cross-strait relations while putting an end to a long and vituperative standoff between the two sides in the diplomatic sphere.

  

This event is co-sponsored with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, San Francisco and the Office of the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Steering Through a Sea of Change

Bechtel Conference Center

Ma Ying-jeou President, Republic of China on Taiwan Keynote speaker
Condolezza Rice Professor Moderator FSI

CDDRL
Stanford University
Encina Hall, C147
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 724-6448 (650) 723-1928
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Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution
Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science and Sociology
diamond_encina_hall.png MA, PhD

Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He is also professor by courtesy of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford, where he lectures and teaches courses on democracy (including an online course on EdX). At the Hoover Institution, he co-leads the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region and participates in the Project on the U.S., China, and the World. At FSI, he is among the core faculty of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, which he directed for six and a half years. He leads FSI’s Israel Studies Program and is a member of the Program on Arab Reform and Development. He also co-leads the Global Digital Policy Incubator, based at FSI’s Cyber Policy Center. He served for 32 years as founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy.

Diamond’s research focuses on global trends affecting freedom and democracy and on U.S. and international policies to defend and advance democracy. His book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, analyzes the challenges confronting liberal democracy in the United States and around the world at this potential “hinge in history,” and offers an agenda for strengthening and defending democracy at home and abroad.  A paperback edition with a new preface was released by Penguin in April 2020. His other books include: In Search of Democracy (2016), The Spirit of Democracy (2008), Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (1999), Promoting Democracy in the 1990s (1995), and Class, Ethnicity, and Democracy in Nigeria (1989). He has edited or coedited more than fifty books, including China’s Influence and American Interests (2019, with Orville Schell), Silicon Triangle: The United States, China, Taiwan the Global Semiconductor Security (2023, with James O. Ellis Jr. and Orville Schell), and The Troubling State of India’s Democracy (2024, with Sumit Ganguly and Dinsha Mistree).

During 2002–03, Diamond served as a consultant to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and was a contributing author of its report, Foreign Aid in the National Interest. He has advised and lectured to universities and think tanks around the world, and to the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other organizations dealing with governance and development. During the first three months of 2004, Diamond served as a senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. His 2005 book, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, was one of the first books to critically analyze America's postwar engagement in Iraq.

Among Diamond’s other edited books are Democracy in Decline?; Democratization and Authoritarianism in the Arab WorldWill China Democratize?; and Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for Democracy, all edited with Marc F. Plattner; and Politics and Culture in Contemporary Iran, with Abbas Milani. With Juan J. Linz and Seymour Martin Lipset, he edited the series, Democracy in Developing Countries, which helped to shape a new generation of comparative study of democratic development.

Download full-resolution headshot; photo credit: Rod Searcey.

Former Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Faculty Chair, Jan Koum Israel Studies Program
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Encina Hall, C148
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305

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Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Director of the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy
Research Affiliate at The Europe Center
Professor by Courtesy, Department of Political Science
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Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a faculty member of FSI's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). He is also Director of Stanford's Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy, and a professor (by courtesy) of Political Science.

Dr. Fukuyama has written widely on issues in development and international politics. His 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man, has appeared in over twenty foreign editions. His book In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir will be published in fall 2026.

Francis Fukuyama received his B.A. from Cornell University in classics, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in Political Science. He was a member of the Political Science Department of the RAND Corporation, and of the Policy Planning Staff of the US Department of State. From 1996-2000 he was Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, and from 2001-2010 he was Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He served as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2001-2004. He is editor-in-chief of American Purpose, an online journal.

Dr. Fukuyama holds honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, Doane College, Doshisha University (Japan), Kansai University (Japan), Aarhus University (Denmark), the Pardee Rand Graduate School, and Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland). He is a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rand Corporation, the Board of Trustees of Freedom House, and the Board of the Volcker Alliance. He is a fellow of the National Academy for Public Administration, a member of the American Political Science Association, and of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is married to Laura Holmgren and has three children.

(October 2025)

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Gary Roughead Admiral (Ret.), Former Chief of Naval Operations Discussant US Navy
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China’s remarkable development poses a problem for theories that have stressed the importance of institutions producing “good governance” and minimizing corruption.  As a possible solution to this problem, the following ten arguments are presented:  1) Current research presents us with two very different concepts of governance; 2) Only one of these can serve as the basis for an operationalization of “good governance”; 3) In this approach, labeled “Quality of Government” (QoG), it is argued that QoG should be distinguished from “quality of democracy”, implying that; 4) the definition of QoG should be confined to the execution and implementation of public policies; 5) Using a “public goods” approach to corruption, QoG can be defined and measured in a universal way using impartiality in the exercise of public power as the basic operational norm; 6) As with representative democracy, QoG can be institutionalized in very different ways; 7) Most western scholars have confused countries’ specific institutional configuration of “good governance” with the basic norm for QoG which; 7) has led to dysfunctional policy suggestions for developing countries;  8) Beginning in the 1990, the public administration in China has used performance-based management as its main operational tool; 9) This specific type of public administration can be conceptualized as a cadre organization – a non-Weberian model for increasing QoG, that has been neglected both in public administration research and in the institutional theory of development; 10) The cadre organization model, which is also found in the West, solves the perennial delegation problem in public administration, which can explain why China has thrived, despite not having a Weberian rule-of-law type of administration and scoring relatively high on standard measures of corruption.

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