Nigel Ashford (born 1952) is a British-born, U.S.-based academic and author, primarily in the field of politics. He serves as the Senior Programs Officer at the Institute for Humane Studies.
Ashford was a Professor of Politics at Staffordshire University, where he was also a Jean Monnet Scholar. [1] He served as the Director the Principles of a Free Society Project at the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation in Sweden. He was a recipient of the International Anthony Fisher Trust Prize. [1]
Ashford serves as the Senior Programs Officer at the Institute for Humane Studies. He also served on the Advisory Council of the Democracy Institute. [2]
The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) is a non-profit organization that promotes the teaching and research of classical liberalism in higher education in the United States. IHS offers funding opportunities, programs, and events for faculty and graduate students seeking careers in academia as well as various fellowships.
Deroy Murdock is an American political commentator and a contributing editor with National Review Online. A native of Los Angeles, Murdock lives in New York City. A first-generation American, his parents were born in Costa Rica.
Thomas Gordon Palmer is an American libertarian author and theorist, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and Vice President for International Programs at the Atlas Network.
Anthony Downs was an American economist specializing in public policy and public administration. His research focuses included political choice theory, rent control, affordable housing, and transportation economics. He wrote a number of books including, An Economic Theory of Democracy (1957) and Inside Bureaucracy (1967), which have been major influences on the public choice school of political economy. In Downs's Law of Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion (1962), he predicted that expanding expressways could not reduce traffic congestion, since demand would increase as well, and that reducing speeds increases capacity.
David M. Lampton is the George and Sadie Hyman Professor and Director of China Studies Emeritus at the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and former Chairman of The Asia Foundation.
John Harper Trumbull was an American politician who served as the 70th Governor of Connecticut.
Bismarck Myrick is a former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia (1999–2002) and Lesotho (1995–1998). He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and a decorated Vietnam War hero. He represented the U.S. at the swearing in of South Africa's first democratic parliament, led by Nelson Mandela. The Kingdom of Lesotho conferred on him the Kingdom's highest honor to a non-citizen. Liberia's major newspapers and civil society organizations named him "Diplomat of the Year" or "Man of the Year" for three consecutive years. The City Council appointed him Goodwill Ambassador for Goree Island, Senegal in 2008. Portsmouth named two streets in his honor in 2001 and selected him as a 2006 "Portsmouth Notable" – the city's highest honor. He is featured in the March, 2013 edition of "The Citizen of Chesapeake" Newspaper. Active in community service, he is on a number of boards, such as the World Affairs Council.
Juliana Geran Pilon is a Romanian-born naturalized American writer. She is currently a senior fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization in Clinton, New York. She previously was professor of politics and culture and director of the Center for Culture and Security at The Institute of World Politics.
Kent Richmond Hill is Senior Fellow for Eurasia, Middle East, and Islam at the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington, D.C..
Thomas C. Hubbard is a diplomat and former U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines (1996–2000) and South Korea (2001–04). He is currently a Senior Director for Asia at McLarty Associates and Chairman of The Korea Society.
Timothy Michael Carney is a retired American diplomat and consultant. Carney served as a career Foreign Service Officer for 32 years, with assignments that included Vietnam and Cambodia as well as Lesotho and South Africa before being appointed as ambassador to Sudan and later in Haiti. Carney served with a number of U.N. Peacekeeping Missions, and until recently led the Haiti Democracy Project, an initiative launched under the presidency of George W. Bush to build stronger institutional foundations for the country's long-term relationship with the United States.
Karl Winfrid Eikenberry is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from April 2009 to July 2011. From 2011 to 2019, he was the Director of the U.S. Asia Security Initiative at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and a Stanford University professor of the practice; a member of the Core Faculty at the Center for International Security and Cooperation; and an affiliated faculty member at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, and The Europe Center.
Maria Otero was the first holder of the office of the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights from January 15, 2012, through February 4, 2013. She also served as the President's Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues.
The Democracy Institute is a think tank based in Washington, DC, and London. It was founded in 2006. According to the University of Bath's Tobacco Tactics project the institute has taken part in pro-tobacco activities and has previously received funding from the tobacco industry.
Thomas O. Melia currently serves as Washington director at PEN America. Previously, he served in the Obama Administration as USAID's assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia (2015–2017) and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, at the United States Department of State (2010–2015). Melia previously served as executive director of Democracy International, an organization that designs, implements, and evaluates democracy and governance programs around the world. Melia also served as the deputy executive director of Freedom House, a human rights organization.
Janusz Bugajski is a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, D.C. He also serves as the host of the "Bugajski Hour" television shows broadcast in the Balkans. Previously, he held the position of senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, D.C., and served as the director of the New European Democracy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Jerrold D. Green is the president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, California. He is concurrently a research professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Sarah E. Mendelson is an American diplomat and served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Mendelson was confirmed by the Senate on October 8, 2015, and sworn into her post on October 15, 2015. Mendelson was recently named Distinguished Service Professor and head of Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College's program in Washington, D.C.
Francisco "Paco" Palmieri is an American diplomat who previously served as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, leading the State Department’s efforts to advance U.S. foreign policy goals in the region from January 2017 to November 2018. Palmieri managed the successful 2018 Summit of the Americas in Peru, U.S. engagement with the Lima Group unifying 15 Western Hemisphere democracies in a multilateral diplomatic response to the crisis in Venezuela, the reorientation of U.S. foreign assistance in support of the Colombia peace process, the formulation and adoption of a new comprehensive U.S. political and economic Caribbean 2020 strategy, the launch of the renegotiation of the 50-year old Columbia River Treaty with Canada, and the multi-agency response to the ongoing migration challenges emanating from Central America. He also was responsible for the daily management of the Bureau’s 53 overseas U.S. diplomatic missions, 12,000 employees, and implementation of the Hemisphere’s $1.58 billion foreign assistance and $290 million operating budgets. He recently served as the Civilian Deputy and Foreign Policy Advisor to Admiral Craig S. Faller at United States Southern Command, succeeding former Ambassador Jean Elizabeth Manes in July 2021.
M. Dane Waters is a political strategist, elephant protection advocate, writer, and direct democracy advocate. He has worked on six continents providing strategic advice to campaigns, governments, activists, academic institutions, and NGO’s. He has also consulted on projects with the United Nations, the U.S. Department of State and the International Republican Institute.