Professor Larry Diamond – Political Science at Stanford University

Professional Summary

Larry Diamond is professor by courtesy of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford University, where he teaches courses on democracy and American foreign policy, including a massive open online course on Comparative Democratic Development. He earned his B.A. in Political Organization and Behavior in 1974, M.A. from the Food Research Institute in 1978, and Ph.D. in Sociology in 1980, all from Stanford University. From 1980 to 1985, he taught Sociology at Vanderbilt University. Subsequently, he became William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). He directed FSI’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law for more than six years and now leads its Program on Arab Reform and Democracy. Diamond served as founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy from 1990 to 2022 and as senior consultant at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. He chairs the Hoover Institution Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region, co-leads the Project on the U.S., China, and the World, and is principal investigator of the Global Digital Policy Incubator at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center. During 2002–2003, he consulted for the US Agency for International Development and contributed to its report Foreign Aid in the National Interest. In early 2004, he served as senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad.

Diamond’s research examines democratic trends and conditions worldwide and policies to defend and advance democracy. His books include Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency (2019), In Search of Democracy (2016), The Spirit of Democracy (2008), Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (1999), Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq (2005), and Class, Ethnicity, and Democracy in Nigeria (1988). He has edited or co-edited approximately fifty books on democratic development, including Democracy in Decline? (2016), Will China Democratize? (2013), and Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for Democracy (2012), all with Marc F. Plattner. Among his honors are the Dinkelspiel Award for Distinctive Contributions to Undergraduate Education (2007), Teacher of the Year Award from Associated Students of Stanford University (2007), and Kenneth M. Cuthbertson Award for Exceptional Service to Stanford University (2016). He has advised the World Bank, United Nations, State Department, and other agencies on governance and development.

Professional Email: ldiamond@stanford.edu