Michael Shifter
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Michael E. Shifter is president of the Inter-American Dialogue and an adjunct professor of Latin American studies at
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
's
School of Foreign Service The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It is considered to be one of the world's leading international affairs schools, granting degrees at bot ...
. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and writes for the council's journal '' Foreign Affairs''. He is also a member of the
Latin American Studies Association The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) is the largest association for scholars of Latin American studies. Founded in 1966, it has over 12,000 members, 45 percent of whom reside outside the United States (36 percent in Latin America and the C ...
(LASA), and a contributing editor to ''
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''. Shifter has served on the board of directors of the
Washington Office on Latin America The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) is a United States non-governmental organization (NGO) whose stated goal is to promote human rights, democracy, and social and economic justice in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Washington Offi ...
(WOLA), the advisory committee of
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
in the Americas Division, and the advisory board of the Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies at
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,''
Crimes of War ''Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know'' is a 1999 reference book edited by Roy Gutman and David Rieff. The 352-page book contains more than 150 entries, and was published by W.W. Norton. The book collects reporters' accounts of war crime ...
''
Contributors
, April 2001, accessed 6 August 2010
as well as the Social Science Foundation of the Graduate School of International Relations at the
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...
. Shifter writes and talks widely on US-Latin American relations and hemispheric affairs. His recent articles have appeared in ''
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'', ''
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'', ''
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'', '' Miami Herald'', ''
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'', ''
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'' and other publications. His writings on democratic governance, multilateralism, drug policy, security issues, and politics in the Andean countries have also been published in many Latin American newspapers and magazines, including Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Panama, and Jamaica. He is co-editor, along with Jorge Domínguez, of Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America, published by Johns Hopkins University Press and now in its third edition. Shifter has lectured about hemispheric policy at leading universities in Latin America and Europe.


Education

Shifter graduated
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
and summa cum laude from Oberlin College, Ohio, and then completed a master's degree in
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
Inter-American Dialogue
Staff
, accessed 27 Feb 2010
where he taught Latin American development and politics for four years.


Career

Before joining the Inter-American Dialogue, Shifter directed the Latin American and Caribbean program at the
National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is an organization in the United States that was founded in 1983 for promoting democracy in other countries by promoting political and economic institutions such as political groups, trade unions, ...
from January 1993 to March 1994. Before that, starting in 1987, he directed the
Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
's governance and human rights program in the Andean region and Southern Cone, where he was based, first, in Lima, Peru and then in Santiago, Chile. In the mid-1980s, he was a representative in Brazil with the Inter-American Foundation, where he also worked in the Office of Research and Evaluation. He has consulted for the Ford Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, Agency for International Development, Oxfam America, and the Swedish International Development Agency. In 2000, Mr. Shifter directed an independent task force on US policy towards Colombia, organized by the Dialogue and the Council on Foreign Relations and co-chaired by Senator Bob Graham (D-Fl) and former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft. Mr. Shifter is regularly interviewed by a variety of both US and Latin American media, and often appears on CNN and BBC. Since 1993, Shifter has been adjunct professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, where he teaches Latin American politics. Since 1994, Shifter has played a major role in shaping the Dialogue's agenda, commissioning policy-relevant articles and reports as well as implementing the organization's program strategy in relation to the Andean countries. Since 1996, he has testified regularly before Congress about US policy towards Latin America.


Publications

* With Jorge Domínguez, eds (2008), ''Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America'', Johns Hopkins University Press.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shifter, Michael American foreign policy writers American male non-fiction writers American columnists Living people Members of the Inter-American Dialogue Walsh School of Foreign Service faculty Oberlin College alumni Harvard University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)