Francis Fukuyama Biography

Francis Fukuyama is acknowledged as part of a few thinkers of his time who has strongly influenced the direction of public policy and modern social and political philosophy. Professor Fukuyama has written on the role of culture and social capital in modern economic life, democratization and international political economy, and on the social consequences of the transition to an information economy, among other subjects. He offers his critique of the neoconservatism that has shaped current American foreign policy in his book, America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy; and also proposes an alternative approach that balances neoconservative idealism with a much-needed realism. Professor Fukuyama was a leading voice among the neoconservative circles he now criticizes; his defection and his book are realigning the dialog that shapes American public policy, as his books have done in the past. Dr. Francis Fukuyama is a professor at Stanford University—the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies—and a longstanding observer of global political and economic issues, with a special emphasis on the development of democratic political systems around the world. He previously taught at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, where he was the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and director of the School’s International Development program. Dr. Fukuyama has written widely on issues relating to democratization and international political economy. His book, The End of History and the Last Man has appeared in over twenty foreign editions, and his most recent book, The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, is a 2011 New York Times Notable Book and a Kirkus Reviews, and Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year. Dr. Fukuyama has served as a member of the Political Science Department at the RAND Corporation, from 1979-1980, from 1983-89, and from 1995-96. In 1981-82, and in 1989 he was a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the US Department of State, first specializing in Middle East affairs, and then as Deputy Director for European political-military affairs. In 1981-82 he was also a member of the US delegation to the Egyptian-Israeli talks on Palestinian autonomy. He served on the President’s Council on Bioethics, established by President George W. Bush from 2001 – 2004. Dr. Fukuyama received his B.A. in classics from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. He was also the Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University from 1996 - 2000. His other books include America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy, and Falling Behind: Explaining the Development Gap between Latin America and the United States. Dr. Fukuyama is chairman of the editorial board of The American Interest, which co-founded in 2005. He is a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute, and a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. With honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, Doane College, Doshisha University and Kansai University in Japan, and Aarhus University in Denmark. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation, the Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy, and member of the advisory boards for the Journal of Democracy, the Inter-American Dialogue, and The New America Foundation; as well as a member of the American Political Science Association and the Council on Foreign Relations. He lives in California with his wife Laura Holmgren and their three children.

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