Experts

The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the Printable CFR Experts Guide.

Democracy and Human Rights (continued)

Democracy Promotion

Isobel Coleman

Senior Fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative; Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program

Author of the book Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East (Random House, 2010). Contributing author to Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President (Brookings Institution Press, 2008). Coauthor of Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security (Hoover Institution Press, 2006).

Charles A. Kupchan

Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow

Author of No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn (2012). Professor of international affairs at Georgetown University. Former director for European affairs at the National Security Council.

Mark P. Lagon

Adjunct Senior Fellow for Human Rights

Concentration chair and visiting professor in the master of science in foreign service program at Georgetown University. Former ambassador-at-large to combat trafficking in persons and deputy assistant secretary for international organization affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Daniel Markey

Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia

Former State Department policy planning staff member. Current work focuses on U.S. policy in South Asia, especially Pakistan and India.

Gideon Rose

Editor, Foreign Affairs, and Peter G. Peterson Chair, Foreign Affairs

Former National Security Council official in the Clinton administration; expert on national security and terrorism. Author of How Wars End (Simon & Schuster, October 2010).

Democratization

Elliott Abrams

Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies

Former senior director for democracy and human rights, senior director for the Near East, and deputy national security adviser handling Middle East affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Former assistant secretary of state for UN affairs, human rights, and Latin America in the Reagan administration.

Jendayi Frazer

Adjunct Senior Fellow for Africa Studies

Distinguished public service professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, U.S. ambassador to South Africa, and special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs in the George W. Bush administration.

Joshua Kurlantzick

Fellow for Southeast Asia

Former foreign correspondent and journalist covering Southeast Asia. Current research focuses on reinvigorating U.S. policy toward Southeast Asia, China's strategy toward Southeast Asia, and lessons of Indonesia as a successful Muslim-majority democracy. Author of Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power is Transforming the World, released in 2006, and of numerous articles and briefs on Southeast Asia, China, and democratization in the developing world.

Mark P. Lagon

Adjunct Senior Fellow for Human Rights

Concentration chair and visiting professor in the master of science in foreign service program at Georgetown University. Former ambassador-at-large to combat trafficking in persons and deputy assistant secretary for international organization affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Terra Lawson-Remer

Fellow for Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy

Former senior adviser at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Assistant professor of international affairs at The New School University. Directing the CFR-sponsored study on the political economy of democratic transitions and writing a book about global economic governance and inclusive growth. Coauthor of the Social & Economic Rights Fulfillment (SERF) Index.

Shannon K. O'Neil

Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies

Director of the recent Council-sponsored Independent Task Force on U.S. policy toward Latin America. Currently authoring a book on Mexico and U.S.-Mexico relations (forthcoming, Oxford University Press).

Carla Anne Robbins

Adjunct Senior Fellow

Award-winning journalist and national security writer. Former deputy editorial page editor for the New York Times and chief diplomatic correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Directing a roundtable series focused on national security in an age of austerity.

Elections

Elliott Abrams

Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies

Former senior director for democracy and human rights, senior director for the Near East, and deputy national security adviser handling Middle East affairs in the George W. Bush administration. Former assistant secretary of state for UN affairs, human rights, and Latin America in the Reagan administration.

Isobel Coleman

Senior Fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative; Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program

Author of the book Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East (Random House, 2010). Contributing author to Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President (Brookings Institution Press, 2008). Coauthor of Strategic Foreign Assistance: Civil Society in International Security (Hoover Institution Press, 2006).

Meghan L. O'Sullivan

Adjunct Senior Fellow

Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School. Former Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, former advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, former member of State Department policy planning staff handling Northern Ireland peace process, Iran, Syria, and relations with the Muslim world.