Democracy

 

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Trump’s presidency has destabilized American democracy, culminating in the violent events at the United States Capitol while Congress certified the 2020 election results on January 6. Where do we go from here? This panel will discuss subversion of the electoral process, the constitutional and legal remedies available, and the future of the Republican party.

 

Speakers include:

Opening remarks by Michael McFaul, Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow FSI and the Hoover Institution

Pamela S. Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law, Stanford Law School

Bill Kristol, editor-at-large of The Bulwark and political commentator

David Kennedy, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Emeritus, Stanford University  

Moderated by Francis Fukuyama, Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law 

 

 

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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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
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies, Department of Political Science
Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
mcfaul_headshot_2025.jpg PhD

Michael McFaul is the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, all at Stanford University. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995 and served as FSI Director from 2015 to 2025. He is also an international affairs analyst for MSNOW.

McFaul served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).

McFaul has authored ten books and edited several others, including, most recently, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, as well as From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia, (a New York Times bestseller) Advancing Democracy Abroad: Why We Should, How We Can; and Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin.

He is a recipient of numerous awards, including an honorary PhD from Montana State University; the Order for Merits to Lithuania from President Gitanas Nausea of Lithuania; Order of Merit of Third Degree from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford University. In 2015, he was the Distinguished Mingde Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center at Peking University.

McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his B.A. in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his M.A. in Soviet and East European Studies from Stanford University in 1986. As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed his D. Phil. in International Relations at Oxford University in 1991. 

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ABSTRACT 

This talk is based on the speakers’ recently published edited volume The Unfinished Arab Spring: Micro-Dynamics of Revolts between Change and Continuity. Adopting an original analytical approach in explaining various dynamics at work behind the Arab revolts and giving voice to local dynamics and legacies rather than concentrating on debates about paradigms, we highlight micro-perspectives of change and resistance as well as of contentious politics that are often marginalized and left unexplored in favor of macro-analyses. First, we re-examine the stories of the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Morocco and Algeria through diverse and novel perspectives, looking at factors that have not yet been sufficiently underlined but carry explanatory power for what has occurred. Second, rather than focusing on macro-comparative regional trends – however useful they might be – we focus on the particularities of each country, highlighting distinctive micro-dynamics of change and continuity. ​

SPEAKERS BIO

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Fatima el Issawi
Fatima el Issawi is a Reader in Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Essex. Her research focuses on the intersection between media, politics and conflicts in transitional contexts to democracy in North Africa. She is the Principal Investigator for the research project “Media and Transitions to Democracy: Journalistic Practices in Communicating Conflicts- the Arab Spring” funded by the British Academy Sustainable Development Programme, looking at media’s impact on communicating political conflicts in post uprisings in North Africa. Since 2012, el Issawi has been leading empirical comparative research projects on the interplay between media and political change, funded by Open Society Foundation and the Middle East Centre/LSE, covering Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Algeria. El Issawi’s expertise crosses journalism, public communication, policy and academia. She has over fifteen years of experience as international correspondent in conflict zones in the MENA region. She is the author of “Arab National Media and Political Change” investigating the complex intersections between traditional journalists and politics in uncertain times of transitions to democracy.

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Francesco Cavatorta
Francesco Cavatorta is full professor of political science and director of the Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur l’Afrique et le Moyen Orient (CIRAM) at Laval University, Quebec, Canada. His research focuses on the dynamics of authoritarianism and democratization in the Middle East and North Africa. His current research projects deal with party politics and the role of political parties in the region. He has published numerous journal articles and books.

Online, via Zoom: REGISTER

Fatima el Issawi University of Essex
Francesco Cavatorta Laval University
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Statement in Support of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)

[The following statement was issued by a group of scholars and human rights advocates in support of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which currently faces an escalating crackdown by authorities with the arrest of three of its senior personnel, including its executive director. If you wish to add your name to the statement, you can do so via the following link.]

We, the undersigned scholars and human rights advocates, express our deep concern at the escalating crackdown that Egyptian authorities have launched against civil society organizations in recent days. In an unprecedented move, on November 15 security forces arrested Mr. Mohamed Basheer, the administrative manager of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), one of the most prominent and reputable civil society organizations in Egypt. Despite strong international condemnation of that action, on November 18 authorities arrested Mr. Karim Ennarah, the director of the criminal justice unit at EIPR, while launching a vicious campaign against EIPR in state-owned media and leveling false accusations against its personnel. A day later, authorities arrested EIPR Executive Director Mr. Gasser Abdel-Razek. They also leveled terrorism-related charges against Mr. Ennarah and Mr. Basheer, adding their names to a legal case that includes numerous human rights advocates. 

Most concerning is that this escalation comes after EIPR hosted senior diplomats from 14 countries, including Canada, the UK, Norway, several European Union (EU) member states, as well as the EU delegation to discuss the implications of the outcome of the United States elections for the human rights situation in Egypt. We call on the Egyptian government to immediately release EIPR's personnel and halt all politically motivated investigations against civil society organizations in the country.

Signatories*


Nancy Okail, Stanford University

Joshua Stacher, Kent State University

Danny Postel, Northwestern University

Lisa Hajjar, University of California - Santa Barbara

Omar Dahi, Hampshire College

Robert Springborg, Naval Postgraduate School (ret)

Jillian Schwedler, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Jennifer Derr, University of California, Santa Cruz

Rochelle Davis, Georgetown University

Elliott Colla, Georgetown University

Joel Gordon, University of Arkansas

Joel Beinin, Stanford University

Marietje Schaake, Stanford University

Rim Naguib, EUME fellow, Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin

Chris Toensing, International Crisis Group

Ted Swedenburg, University of Arkansas

Wendy Pearlman, Northwestern University

Larry J Diamond, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Will Hanley, Florida State University

Amy Hawthorne, Project on Middle East Democracy

Fadi Awad Elsaid, University of Connecticut

Vickie Langohr , College of the Holy Cross

Ahmed Ezzat, University of Cambridge

Sherene R Seikaly, University of California, Santa Barbara

Iman Mersal, University of Alberta - Canada

Gennaro Gervasio, Roma Tre University, Rome

Enrico De Angelis, Independent Researcher

Kenza Rady    

Owain Lawson, Columbia University

Michele Dunne, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Atef Said, University of Illinois at Chicago

Omar Cheta, Bard College

Pascale Ghazaleh, The American University in Cairo

Hanny Megally, NYU

Nicola Melis, University of Cagliari, Sardinia

Paola Rivetti, Dublin City University

Brecht De Smet, Ghent University

Francesca Biancani, Bologna University

Seppe Malfait, Ghent University

Nicola Perugini, University of Edinburgh

Alessandra Marchi, Università Cagliari

Koenraad Bogaert, Ghent University

Lucia Sorbera, The University of Sydney, NSW

Patrizia Manduchi, University of Cagliari (Italy)

John T Chalcraft, LSE

Soraya El Kahlaoui, Ghent University

Khaled Fahmy, Cambridge University

Nejla Lyons, Independent human rights researcher

Mamdouh Habashi, Socialist People's Alliance Party

Daniela Pioppi, University of Naples 'L'Orientale'

Iain Chambers, University of Naples, 'Orientale'

Ray Bush, University of Leeds

Heba Youssef, University of Brighton

Nicola Pratt, University of Warwick, UK

Magda Adly, Nadim center for rehabilitation of victims of violence

Hussein Baoumi, Amnesty International

Suzan Abd El Moty Fayyad, El Nadim Center

Ibrahim Seyam           

Saerom Han, University of Aberdeen

Amel Fahmy, TADWEIN

Aziz Barkaoui, Amnesty-France

Mohamad Najem, SMEX

Nihad Aboud  

Samir Khattab, Researcher

Pinar E. Donmez, De Montfort University

Mohamed Mokhtar, Human rights defender ( ECRF)

Hassan Ali, متطوعون من أجل حقوق الإنسان

Steven Heydemann, Smith College

Sara Abughazal, Regional Coordinator

Agnieszka Paczynska, George Mason University

Asmaa Elmalky           

Lynn Darwich, University of Illinois at Chicago

Mohammad El Taher, Researcher and Technologist

Lorenzo Feltrin, University of Warwick

Gilbert Achcar, SOAS, University of London

Dina Matar, SOAS

Marco Lauri, Università di Macerata

Feyzi Ismail, SOAS University of London

Deniz Kandiyoti, School of Oriental and African Studies

Ziad Elmarsafy, King's College London

Barbara Pizziconi, SOAS, University of london

Dr Vanja Hamzić, SOAS University of London

Lynn Welchman, SOAS, University of London

Mohamed Noby, Lawyer

Bashir Abu-Manneh, University of Kent

Salwa Ismail, SOAS

Ramy Yaacoub, The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy

Veronica Ferreri, ZMO Berlin

Jens Lerche, SOAS, University of London

Rahul Rao, SOAS University of London

Andrea Teti, University of Aberdeen

John Faulkner, Administrator (retired)

Anne Alexander, University of Cambridge

Shreeta Lakhani, SOAS

Francesco De Lellis, Centro Studi sull'Africa Contemporanea - Università L'Orientale Napoli

Akansha Mehta, Goldsmiths, University of London

Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Loughborough University

Myrsini Manney-Kalogera, University of Arizona

Kim Rochette, Save the Children

Rima Majed, American University of Beirut

Aleksandra Zaytseva, Georgetown University

Ryota Jonen, World Movement for Democracy

Chiara Pagano, Università di Pavia

Paul Sedra, Simon Fraser University

Tarek Masoud, Private citizen

Christopher Hitchcock, ACRPS

Juan Cole, University of Michigan

Feyzi Ismail, SOAS University of London

Zachary Lockman, New York University

Yasmin Elsouda, SOAS University of London 

Dalia Ghanem, University of California, Davis

Charlie Lawrie, Johns Hopkins SAIS

Sophie Chamas, SOAS, University of London

Kerem Nisancioglu, SOAS University of London 

Jo Tomkinson, SOAS, University of London

Imran Jamal, SOAS

Saffo Papantonopoulou, University of Arizona

Suad Joseph, University of California, Davis

Fayrouz Yousfi, Gent University 

Abdulrahman El-Taliawi, University College London

Anthony Alessandrini, City University of New York

Yair Wallach, SOAS

Huseyin Silman, GLOPOL

Alfredo Saad Filho, King's College London

Sami Zemni, Ghent University 

Maher Hamoud, Ghent University

Omar Jabary Salamanca, ULB

Sharan Grewal, College of William & Mary

Michael Chamberlin, Human Rights Defender in Mexico

Mattia Giampaolo, CeSPI

Liliana Toledo Guzmán, University of Arizona

Keith Cook, University of Arizona

Ifigeneia Mourelatou, UCL

Katharina Grüneisl, Durham University

Zoe Basiouri, Aristotle University

Hani Sayed, American University in Cairo

Jason Brownlee, University of Texas at Austin

Charles W. Dunne, Arab Center Washington DC

Francis Fukuyama, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University

Jessica Winegar, Northwestern University

Michael Michaelides, University of Florida 

Catherine Jenkins, SOAS, University of London

Muhammad Ebaid, The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF)

Aleś Łahviniec, European Humanities University, Lithuania-Belarus

Sarah Rifky, MIT

Aymen Zaghdoudi, ARTICLE 19

Tania Kaiser, SOAS

Chenjia Xu, SOAS

Miriam Gastélum, UCL

Lars Peter Laamann, SOAS, University of London

Alessandra Mezzadri, SOAS

Andrew Newsham, SOAS, University of London 

Myat Ko Ko, Yangon School of Political Science

Mayur Suresh, SOAS, University of London

Frances Grahl, SOAS

Sadek Hamid, Independent Academic

Andrea Cornwall, SOAS

Judith E. Tucker, Georgetown University

Georges Khalil, EUME, Forum Transregionale Studien Berlin

William Aceves, California Western School of Law

Karima Laachir, Australian National University 

Aida Seif El Dawla, El Nadim Center

Ruba Salih, SOAS 

Shereif Elroubi

Hadi Enayat, SOAS

Karen Rignall, University of Kentucky

Ahmed Gad, Amnesty International 

Taher Mokhtar, Medical Doctor 

Hassan Osman , University of Minya

Vivienne Matthies-Boon, University of Amsterdam

Sigrid Vertommen, Ghent University

Frances Grahl, SOAS

Rebeca Robertson, SOAS

Alla Kos, Responsible AI

Mahfouz Eltaweel       

Peter Hill, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Ahmed Naji, BMI

Ahmed Abbes, CNRS, Paris, France

Kholoud Saber Barakat, Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain)

Assaf Kfoury, Boston University

Reda Eldanbouki, Women's Center for Guidance and Legal Awareness 

Mona Hamed Imam, El Nadeem Center

Tania Tribe, SOAS

Sherif Azer, University of York, UK 

Omnia El Shakry, University of California, Davis

Manjeet Ramgotra, SOAS University of London

Boris Kilgarriff, SOAS

Mohamef Lotfy, Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms

Lorenzo Casini, University of Messina

Yousra Hassenien       

Christian Achrainer, Philipps University Marburg

Sara Mohani, Journalist

Michael McFaul, Stanford University

Abbas Milani, Stanford University

Karina Sarmiento

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)

Nathan Grubman, Stanford University

Azza Soliman, Lawyer

Jacqueline Charretier, Human rights defender

Mohammad Hossam Fadel, University of Toronto Faculty of Law

Necla Tschirgi, Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego

Elisa Massimino, Georgetown University Law Center

Stuart Schaar, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Alya Khemakhem, USC

Daniel Marwecki, University of Hong Kong

Brad Fox, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Karim Reda, ناشط سياسي و مدون مستقل

Dolores Soto

Irene Gendzier , Boston University (Prof. Emeritus)

Basma El Husseiny

Ahmed Ramy, Egyptian Pharmaceutical Syndicate

Sherif Gamal, IT Specialist 

Ahmed Melad, Lawyer

Khaled Mansour, Independent Consultant

Richard Falk, Queen Mary University London

Wagdy Abdel Aziz, مركز الجنوب لحقوق الانسان

Laila Soueif, Cairo University

Matt Gordner, University of Toronto

Emad Shahin, Academic 

Khalda Yassin, Egyptian citizen

Céline Cantat, Sciences Po Paris 

Ahmed Said, ECRF

Ismail Ammar, Student

Amr Tajuddin, Egyptian citizen 

Giovanni Piazzese, Freelance journalist and Ph.D. researcher 

Lamia Radi, Journalist 

Sameh Elbarky, Alaraby Aljadeed newspaper

Magda Boutros, Brown University

Céline Lebrun Shaath, Harvard Kennedy School of Government 

Riya Al'sanah, Who Profits Research Center 

Nesting Badawi, The American University in Cairo

Nadia Kamel    

Shaimaa El-Banna, Committee for Justice 

Zoé Carle, Université Paris 8

ahmed altigani, IRFC

Ali Hegazy, Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists

Hakim Abdelnaeem, Artist

Khaled Sobhy

Tanya Monforte, McGill University

Emma Frampton, SOAS

Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement

Jens Hanssen, University of Toronto

Manar Tantawie, استاذ بمعهد هندسي خاص

Dee Smythe, Centre for Law & Society, University of Cape Town

Manar Mohsen           

Ranjit Singh, University of Mary Washington

Vasuki Nesiah, New York University

Pascal Menoret, Brandeis University

Mona Khneisser, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign 

Yasser Munif, Emerson College

Corinna Mullin , CUNY

Alice Finden, SOAS

Alfredo Ortiz Aragón, University of the Incarnate Word

Amira Abdelhamid, University of Sussex

Magdi El Gawhary       

Daniel Watson, University of Sussex

Maha Alaswad, Georgetown University 

Andrea Brock, University of Sussex

Hani Faris, University of British Columbia, Canada

Noam Chomsky, University of Arizona

Saghar Sara, Collaborative Social Change

Ziad Abu-Rish, Bard College

Sarah El-Kazaz, SOAS

Sara Kermanian, University of Sussex

Heather Allansdottir, University of Bifrost

Louiza Odysseos, University of Sussex

Adam Ramadan, University of Birmingham

Karem Yehia, Journalist freelance

M. Abbas Yongacoglu, University of Ottawa (Emeritus Professor)

Liliane Daoud, Journalist 

Rossella Merullo, Humboldt University

Juan M. Amaya-Castro, Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá - Colombia)

Beth Baron, CUNY

Dina Fergani, University of Toronto 

David Kramer, FIU

Ghayth Omar, Alnasser and Partners

Lori Allen, SOAS University of London

Azzah Ahmed, UCLA

Derek Ludovici , City University of New York

Farah Al Shami, Arab Reform Initiative

Rosemary Sayigh, American University of Beirut

Muhammad Ali Khalidi, City University of New York - Graduate Center

Mohammed Mostafa, Intersection Association for Rights and Freedoms 

Ali Ugurlu, Columbia University

Wafaa Hefny, Professor of English Literature

Lamis al Nakkash, Cairo University 

Nadje Al-Ali, Brown University

Yezid Sayigh, Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center

Patrizia Manduchi, University of Cagliari

Daniela Potenza, Università degli studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"

Giulia Cimini, University of Bologna 

Brendan O’Duffy, Queen Mary University of London

Alessandro Buontempo, Università Statale di Milano

Tony Outang, SOAS 

Sophie Chapman, SOAS

Chiara Cascino, University of Naples "L'Orientale", Italy

Teodora Boanches, SOAS

Caterina Roggero, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca

Laura Vale, SOAS

Martina Biondi, University of Perugia

Felix Henson, SOAS

Caitlin Callies, SOAS

Fez Endalaust, SOAS, University of London

Charlotte Paule, SOAS 

Hanna Uihlein, SOAS University of London

Emily Bayliss, SOAS

Lauren Feechan, SOAS

Giuseppe Acconcia, Padova University

Matthew Holt

Faiz Sheikh, University of Sussex

James White, SOAS, University of London

Yusra Siddique

Lucy Roberts, SOAS

Leona Li, SOAS, University of London

Amory Lumumba, SOAS

Virginia Ruosi, SOAS

Amanda Kutch, SOAS 

Luisa Hausleithner, SOAS

Jack McGinn, London School of Economics

Alessandro Cane, SOAS

Ottilia Mackerle, SOAS

Ishrat Sanjida, SOAS

Flora Butler, SOAS

Max La Fosse, SOAS

Callum Cafferty, SOAS University of London

June Derz, SOAS

Doris Duhennois, SOAS

KP Sarvaiya, SOAS

Madhubanti Bhaduri, School of Oriental and African Studies 

Debora Del Pistoia, Amnesty International 

Sarah Zellner, University of Oxford 

Laura Janicka, SOAS

Liana Parry, SOAS

Ella Spencer, SOAS

Clara Kristola Truc, SOAS

Oliver Hampden, SOAS

Evangelin Dupret, SOAS

Sara Bertotti, SOAS University of London

Alada Taylor, SOAS

Aoife Delaney, SOAS

Hazel Ke, SOAS

Sophie Snook, SOAS

Alexander Curtis, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

Lachlan Kenneally, SOAS

Sara Birch, Brighton University, UK 

Gabrielle Nuttall, SOAS

Sascha Gill, SOAS, University of London

Filippo Angeli, SOAS

Renata Rouvinen, SOAS 

Ruth George    

Joseph Edwards, SOAS

Muhsin Chang, SOAS

Emmy Toulson , SOAS

Margot Chesne, SOAS 

Holly Haynes, SOAS

Georgia Jones, SOAS

Maliha Sohail, SOAS

Sascha Kröger, SOAS

Silvia Sanchez, SOAS

Joshua Young, SOAS

Anna Etter       

Rebekka Muth, SOAS

Chao Ping Yi, SOAS

Cristina Stanescu, SOAS

Raimond Christian Dasalla, SOAS

Daisy Webster-Kincaid, SOAS

Hisham Parchment, SOAS, University of London

Anthea Frank, SOAS

Martina Censi, Università di Bergamo

Lucy Mair, Garden Court North Chambers

Malina Mihaiu, SOAS

Olivia Smith, SOAS

Polina Volkova, SOAS University of London

Kay Zhang       

Julia Llaurado, SOAS

Yukari Ishii, SOAS 

Alessandro Gatti Bonati          

Lornelle Gayle-Harris, SOAS

Gaelle Poncelet, SOAS

Helena Buckley, SOAS

William Tod, SOAS

Mario Arulthas, SOAS

Taher Saad

Judith Heimbach, SOAS

Chelsea Krajcik, SOAS

Tanzidah Islam, SOAS

Ilyas Saliba, WZB Berlin Social Science Center 

John Peterson, SOAS

Lyna Belmekki, SOAS

Francesco Vacchiano, University Ca' Foscari, Venice

Aaron G. Jakes, The New School

Joshua Ong, SOAS 

Emmy Toulson, SOAS

Alex Schumann, SOAS

Caitlin Pether, SOAS 

Jamie Corson, SOAS

Noah Lepawsky           

Nayeema Rahman, SOAS

Katherine Saunders, SOAS, University of London 

Ioana Ille, SOAS

Taha Metwally, Founder, ANKH association

Nijmi Edres, Georg-Eckert-Institut für internationale Schulbuchforschung

Serena Tolino, University of Bern

Lutz Oette, Centre for Human Rights Law, SOAS, University of London

Samia Bano, SOAS University of London 

Laura Hammond, SOAS University of London

Sinan Antoon, New York University

Richard Alexander, SOAS University of London

Isabel Toledo Guzmán, Secretaría de Educación Pública SEP

Andrew Antoine, SOAS University

Michael Reinsborough, School of Oriental and African Studies

Jeffery Lin, PEN Hong Kong, Univ. of Hong Kong Cultural Leadership Youth Academy

Thabo Huntgeburth, SOAS

Nadine Wassef, Ain Shams University 

Ilyas Saliba, WZB Berlin Social Science Center 

Ceri Gibbons, Researcher

Dishan Abrahams, SOAS

Laura Bier, Georgia Tech

Veli Yadirgi, SOAS

Genevieve Ladd, SOAS

Daphne Muscat, SOAS, University of London

Hannah Abbott, SOAS University

Sasha Hubbard, SOAS

Zaeema Ali, SOAS

Shamita Ray, SOAS

Ilaria Bertocchini, SOAS

Alexandria Pilides, SOAS

Viktor da Silva, SOAS 

Alaina Hall, SOAS 

Tanja Tabbara, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

Raffaele Cattedra, Università di Cagliari

Jingfei Zhang, SOAS

Clive Rosewarne, Latrobe University

Ugo GRAGNOLATI, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Natasha Kaluzynski, SOAS

Naila Awwad, Women Against Violence

Rani Jana, SOAS University of London

Catriona Drew, School of Law, SOAS University of London 

Samuel Smith-Stanley, SOAS

Sarah Guennoun, SOAS

Maya Shukla, SOAS

Rosa Lynch-Northover, SOAS

Laurence Davis, University College Cork

Sarah Irving, Edge Hill University

Neve Gordon, Queen Mary University of London

Charles Melville, Pembroke College Cambridge

Sara Salem, LSE

Richard Tapper, SOAS University of London (Emeritus Professor)

Eugene Rogan, University of Oxford

Michael Mason, London School of Economics and Political Science

Hilary Kilpatrick, Independent scholar

Hendrik Kraetzschmar, University of Leeds

Catherine Cobham, University of St Andrews

Birgit Poopuu, Tallinn University

Lewis Turner, Newcastle University

Anthony Gorman, University of Edinburgh

Rayane Anser, University of Warwick- Department of Politics and International Studies

Alessia Carnevale, Sapienza University of Rome

Shelagh Weir, Former British Museum

Mona Baker, University of Manchester

Sharri Plonski, Queen Mary University of London

Jorgen Nielsen, University of Birmingham

Guy Burton, Vesalius College

Sherry Dawoud           

James Godfrey, Birkbeck, University of London

James Dickins, University of Leeds

Marilyn Booth, University of Oxford

Matthew Hedges, Durham University

Hoda Mohieldin, Cairo university 

Celestine Hanssens, SOAS

Mandy Turner, University of Manchester, UK

Wafaa Farhat, SOAS

Laure Guirguis, Aarhus University, Denmark

Cecilia Martinez, SOAS UNIVERSITY

Cıgdem Balım, Indiana University (Emerita)

Nadim Houry, Arab Reform Initiative

Jeremy Wildeman, uOttawa

Line Khatib, McGill

Irene Fernández-Molina, University of Exeter

Emmy Toulson, SOAS

Vicky Blake, UCU

Georgia Hunt, SOAS

Celia Kerslake, University of Oxford

Daniel Vitkus, University of California, San Diego

Miray Philips, University of Minnesota

Antonino Adamo, CNR

Antonio Pezzano, Università di Napoli "L'Orientale"

Eve Caplowe, SOAS

Gunvor Mejdell, University of Oslo

Lord John Alderdice, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford

Noemie Bachellerie, SOAS

Sami Zubaida, Birkbeck, University of London

Mark Ayyash, Mount Royal University

David Wearing, University of Southampton

Nurcin Ileri, Forum Transregionale Studien, EUME Program

Bonnie Bates, Carleton University

Mariam Iskajyan, SOAS Development Studies

Marta Bellingreri, Independent researcher 

Nick Riemer, University of Sydney

Sandra Nicholls, SOAS

Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron, Institut de recherche pour le développement

Youssef Mohieldin, University Professor 

Jacob Høigilt, University of Oslo

Sana Tannoury-Karam, Forum Transregionale Studien

Anni Vendelin, SOAS

Kaoutar Ghilani, University of Oxford

Sophie Abramovici, SOAS

Karim El Taki, University of Cambridge

Leo Zeilig, University of London 

Maria Sussex, University of Sussex

Zoe Peppitt, SOAS

Jonathan Purkis, Independent academic and freelance consultant

Nicole Crisp, University of Arizona 

Loes Debuysere, Ghent University

Leila Schneps, CNRS France

Nachoua Azhari, Freelance translator. 

Kathleen Ryou             

Kelly McBride, IFRC Psychosocial Centre 

Sergey Shpectorov, University of Birmingham, UK

Frances S. Hasso, Duke University

Barry Simon, Caltech

Ophélie Mercier, Ghent University

Hesham Sabry, Qadreen Egypt

Dina El Henawy, Qadreen

Omar Sedky

Mehdi Labzaé, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme

Paul Grassin, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne 

Garth Frankland, Leeds Left Unity

Mathilde Zederman, Sciences Po Toulouse

Marianne Saddier, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Bjørn Olav Utvik, University of Oslo

Katerina Dalacoura, LSE

Dominique Maliesky, Sciences Po Rennes

Giuseppe Restifo, Independent Historian Researcher

Nils A. Butenschøn, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo

Ece Onderoglu Bayazit, SOAS

Dubois Simon, IFPO

Karim Eid-Sabbagh, Independent Researcher

Owoh Henry, SOAS

Ben Radley, University of Bath

Genevieve Ladd, SOAS

Agnès Aubry, University of Lausanne

Adele Oliver, SOAS

Ricarda Ameling, FU Berlin

Elliot Shirnia, SOAS

Aderemi Medupin, CEE Coalition

Hyaah Chowdhury, SOAS Student 

Azzah Ahmed, UCLA

Laura Moreno Vela

 

*Institutional affiliations listed for identification purposes only

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Department of Political Science
Stanford University
Encina Hall West, Room 307
Stanford, CA 94305-6044

(650) 725-7987
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CDDRL Affiliated Faculty
Associate Professor, Political Science
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Adam Bonica is an Associate Professor of Political Science. His research is at the intersection of data science and politics, with interests in money in politics, campaigns and elections, the courts, and political methodology. His research has been published in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Political Analysis, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, and JAMA Internal Medicine. His book, The Judicial Tug of War: How Lawyers, Politicians, and Ideological Incentives Shape the American Judiciary (with Maya Sen), examines the politicization of the American judiciary. 

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This event is open to Stanford undergraduate students only. 

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CDDRL Flyer 2021

The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) will be accepting applications from eligible juniors on who are interested in writing their senior thesis on a subject touching upon democracy, economic development, and rule of law (DDRL) from any university department.  The application period opens on January 11, 2021 and runs through February 12, 2021.   CDDRL faculty and current honors students will be present to discuss the program and answer any questions.

For more information on the Fisher Family CDDRL Honors Program, please click here.

**Please note all CDDRL events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone

 Online, via Zoom: REGISTER

CDDRL
Encina Hall, C152
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 725-2705 (650) 724-2996
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Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science
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Stephen Stedman is a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), an affiliated faculty member at CISAC, and professor of political science (by courtesy) at Stanford University. He is director of CDDRL's Fisher Family Honors Program in Democracy, Development and Rule of Law, and will be faculty director of the Program on International Relations in the School of Humanities and Sciences effective Fall 2025.

In 2011-12 Professor Stedman served as the Director for the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy, and Security, a body of eminent persons tasked with developing recommendations on promoting and protecting the integrity of elections and international electoral assistance. The Commission is a joint project of the Kofi Annan Foundation and International IDEA, an intergovernmental organization that works on international democracy and electoral assistance.

In 2003-04 Professor Stedman was Research Director of the United Nations High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change and was a principal drafter of the Panel’s report, A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility.

In 2005 he served as Assistant Secretary-General and Special Advisor to the Secretary- General of the United Nations, with responsibility for working with governments to adopt the Panel’s recommendations for strengthening collective security and for implementing changes within the United Nations Secretariat, including the creation of a Peacebuilding Support Office, a Counter Terrorism Task Force, and a Policy Committee to act as a cabinet to the Secretary-General.

His most recent book, with Bruce Jones and Carlos Pascual, is Power and Responsibility: Creating International Order in an Era of Transnational Threats (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 2009).

Director, Fisher Family Honors Program in Democracy, Development and Rule of Law
Director, Program in International Relations
Affiliated faculty at the Center for International Security and Cooperation
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Encina Hall, C150
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305

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Center Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
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Didi Kuo is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University. She is a scholar of comparative politics with a focus on democratization, corruption and clientelism, political parties and institutions, and political reform. She is the author of The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave and Why They Don’t (Oxford University Press) and Clientelism, Capitalism, and Democracy: the rise of programmatic politics in the United States and Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

She has been at Stanford since 2013 as the manager of the Program on American Democracy in Comparative Perspective and is co-director of the Fisher Family Honors Program at CDDRL. She was an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow at New America and is a non-resident fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She received a PhD in political science from Harvard University, an MSc in Economic and Social History from Oxford University, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar, and a BA from Emory University.

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CDDRL Postdoctoral Scholar, 2020-21
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An Egyptian-Canadian raised in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Canada, Salma Mousa received her PhD in Political Science from Stanford University in 2020. A scholar of comparative politics, her research focuses on migration, conflict, and social cohesion.  Salma's dissertation investigates strategies for building trust and tolerance after war. Leveraging field experiments among Iraqis displaced by ISIS,  American schoolchildren, and British soccer fans, she shows how intergroup contact can change real-world behaviors — even if underlying prejudice remains unchanged.   A secondary research agenda tackles the challenge of integrating refugees in the United States. Combining a meta-analytic review, ethnographic fieldwork, and field experiments with resettlement agencies, this project identifies risk factors and promising policies for new arrivals.  Salma has held fellowships at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Stanford’s Immigration Policy Lab, the Freeman Spogli Institute, the Stanford Center for International Conflict and Negotiation, the McCoy Center for Ethics in Society, and the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. Her work has been supported by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), the Innovations for Poverty Action Lab (IPA), the King Center on Global Development, the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS), the Program on Governance and Local Development (GLD), and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies. Her research has been featured by The Economist, BBC, and Der Spiegel,  on the front page of the Times of London and on PBS NOVA.

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American public service is under grave threat. It has been heavily politicized during the first Trump term, and in a second may deteriorate rapidly as cronyism, corruption, and incompetence become the new norms.

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Washington Monthly
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Francis Fukuyama
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Trumpist populism could easily linger longer than most people readily assume. This article defines populism and gives three reasons why we are seeing the rise of populist nationalism now, in the second half of the 2010s. Those reasons are economic, political, and cultural. It also addresses the future of populism at home and abroad.

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The American Interest
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Francis Fukuyama
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American democracy is in trouble. Since the 2016 election, a sizable literature has developed that focuses on diagnosing and assessing the state of American democracy, most of which concludes that our system of government is in decline.[2] These authors point to the rise in party polarization, the increasingly bipartisan abandonment of the norms of the democratic process, the rise of populism, the degradation of the public sphere, and the proliferation of gerrymandered districts and voting restrictions to illustrate the breakdown. And while attributing varying levels of significance to these factors, a common theme is that American democracy, once stable, is now threatened. On closer observation, however, it is unclear that American democracy was ever really as healthy as it may have appeared. This Essay argues that the stability of the American system has always been built and dependent upon racial exclusion; over the course of our history, each major movement toward a more fully representative participatory democracy has prompted a backlash that was resolved only by the adoption of policies that worked to undermine the full citizenship of communities of color. The point of this reframing is not to suggest that the United States has made no progress over its history. Nor does it diminish the accomplishments of those who have advocated for equality over the course of our history or minimize the importance of working to repair our democratic institutions. Rather, this reframing is necessary to avoid romanticizing our democratic history and to inform the choices in this moment as we seek to stabilize our country.

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Michigan Law Review Online
Authors
Didi Kuo
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As street protests in the U.S. grew in strength in support of racial justice, authoritarian regimes around the world offered their own interpretations of events to their people back home. The Iranian regime in particular points to the demonstrations as proof that U.S. democracy has failed. Join us as Stanford scholars discuss recent and persistent challenges to democracy in the U.S., in particular violence against the Black community and in response to recent protests.

Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) Director Michael McFaul will moderate a panel discussion on this trend with Larry Diamond, senior fellow at FSI and the Hoover Institution, Didi Kuo, associate director for research at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), Abbas Milani director of the Iranian Studies Program, and Nancy Okail, visiting scholar at CDDRL.

This event is online only. Register to receive a personalized link to join the Zoom webinar.

REGISTER HERE.

This event is co-sponsored by the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at FSI and the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies at Stanford.

615 Crothers Way,
Encina Commons, Room 128A
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 721-4052
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Research Fellow, Hoover Institution
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Abbas Milani is the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and a visiting professor in the department of political science. In addition, Dr. Milani is a research fellow and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution.

Prior to coming to Stanford, Milani was a professor of history and political science and chair of the department at Notre Dame de Namur University and a research fellow at the Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Milani was an assistant professor in the faculty of law and political science at Tehran University and a member of the board of directors of Tehran University's Center for International Studies from 1979 to 1987. He was a research fellow at the Iranian Center for Social Research from 1977 to 1978 and an assistant professor at the National University of Iran from 1975 to 1977.

Dr. Milani is the author of Eminent Persians: Men and Women Who Made Modern Iran, 1941-1979, (Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, 2 volumes, November, 2008); King of Shadows: Essays on Iran's Encounter with Modernity, Persian text published in the U.S. (Ketab Corp., Spring 2005); Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Persian Modernity in Iran, (Mage 2004); The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution (Mage, 2000); Modernity and Its Foes in Iran (Gardon Press, 1998); Tales of Two Cities: A Persian Memoir (Mage 1996); On Democracy and Socialism, a collection of articles coauthored with Faramarz Tabrizi (Pars Press, 1987); and Malraux and the Tragic Vision (Agah Press, 1982). Milani has also translated numerous books and articles into Persian and English.

Milani received his BA in political science and economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1970 and his PhD in political science from the University of Hawaii in 1974.

Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies
Co-director of the Iran Democracy Project
CDDRL Affiliated Scholar
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Moderator

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
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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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Panelist

Encina Hall, C150
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305

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Center Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
didi_kuo_2023.jpg

Didi Kuo is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University. She is a scholar of comparative politics with a focus on democratization, corruption and clientelism, political parties and institutions, and political reform. She is the author of The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave and Why They Don’t (Oxford University Press) and Clientelism, Capitalism, and Democracy: the rise of programmatic politics in the United States and Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

She has been at Stanford since 2013 as the manager of the Program on American Democracy in Comparative Perspective and is co-director of the Fisher Family Honors Program at CDDRL. She was an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow at New America and is a non-resident fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She received a PhD in political science from Harvard University, an MSc in Economic and Social History from Oxford University, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar, and a BA from Emory University.

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Encina Hall
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies, Department of Political Science
Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
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Michael McFaul is the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, all at Stanford University. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995 and served as FSI Director from 2015 to 2025. He is also an international affairs analyst for MSNOW.

McFaul served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).

McFaul has authored ten books and edited several others, including, most recently, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, as well as From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia, (a New York Times bestseller) Advancing Democracy Abroad: Why We Should, How We Can; and Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin.

He is a recipient of numerous awards, including an honorary PhD from Montana State University; the Order for Merits to Lithuania from President Gitanas Nausea of Lithuania; Order of Merit of Third Degree from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford University. In 2015, he was the Distinguished Mingde Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center at Peking University.

McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his B.A. in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his M.A. in Soviet and East European Studies from Stanford University in 1986. As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed his D. Phil. in International Relations at Oxford University in 1991. 

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