Events

The Egyptian Transition in Context

This event explores the wider experience of countries that are attempting democratic transitions, including the "color revolutions" in Eastern Europe and the comparable events in other parts of the Islamic world.

Registration for this event does not guarantee seating. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Panelist Bios:

Alfred Stepan:  "Comparing Transitions"

Alfred C. Stepan is Wallace Sayre Professor of Government and was Dean of SIPA (1983–91).

Stepan's teaching and research interests include comparative politics, theories of democratic transitions, federalism, and the world's religious systems, and democracy. He has published Arguing Comparative Politics (Oxford 2001); Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe, with J. J. Linz (Johns Hopkins 1996); Politics, Society, and Democracy: Comparative Studies, which he edited with H. E. Chebabi and J. J. Linz (Westview Press 1995); Rethinking Military Politics: Brazil and the Southern Cone (Princeton 1988); The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Chile, which he edited with J. J. Linz (Johns Hopkins 1978); The State and Society: Peru in Comparative Perspective (Princeton 1978); and The Military in Politics: Changing Patterns in Brazil (Princeton 1974).

Professor Stepan earned his BA from University of Notre Dame in 1958. He received a BA and an MA from Balliol College, Oxford University in 1963 and a PhD from Columbia University in 1969. Stepan was a professor of political science at Yale University (1976–82), Burgess Professor of Political Science at Columbia (1987–93), served as first rector and president at Central European University (Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw) (1993–96), and was Gladstone Professor of Government and fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University (1996–99). Stepan is also a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991–present) and a member of the British Academy (1997–present).

More information: http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/as48-fac.html

Timothy Frye:  "The Color Revolutions in Eurasia" 

Timothy Frye (Ph.D. Columbia University, 1997) is a professor of political science at Columbia University and a member of the Harriman Institute.  Professor Frye received a B.A. in Russian language and literature from Middlebury College, an M.I.A. from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a Ph.D. also from Columbia University in 1997.  His research and teaching interests are in comparative politics and political economy with a focus on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He is the author of Brokers and Bureaucrats: Building Markets in Russia, (Michigan Press 2000), which won the 2001 Hewett Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, and Incredible Transformation: Building States and Markets after Communism (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press).  He is currently working on a book manuscript, Property Rights and Property Wrongs: What Russia Teaches Us About the Rule of Law.  He has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

More information: http://www.columbia.edu/~tmf2/index.html

Mirjam Künkler: "Comparative Reflections from Indonesia"

Political Scientist Mirjam Künkler joined the Near Eastern Studies Department at Princeton University in 2007. Her research interests are in comparative politics and political theory and focus on comparative relations between religion and state in the Muslim world. She is currently working on a book that analyzes the impact of contemporary Islamic thought and social movement activism on the transformation of authoritarian rule in Iran (1989-2005) and Indonesia (1974-1998).

Of broader comparative interest to her are questions about

1. Comparative Relations between Religion and State in the Muslim World – a project funded by Princeton University’s Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs.
2. Female Religious Authority in 20th century Iran – a project undertaken together with Roja Fazaeli and funded by the British Academy and British Institute for Persian Studies.
3. Religious Parties in the Muslim world – a three-year research project she is undertaking together with Güneş Murat Tezcür, funded by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

Künkler was a visiting scholar at the Faculty of Social Science, University of Tehran, Iran, in the summer of 2002 and fall semester of 2003 and a visiting researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta, Indonesia, in the summer and fall semester of 2005 and parts of the spring semester of 2006.

Before joining Princeton, Künkler served as the Deputy Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR) at Columbia University, under the directorship of Alfred Stepan.

Künkler is the Trustee for Princeton University to the American Institute for Iranian Studies (AIIrS) and a Member of the Board of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS). She is co-PI of the "Iran Social Science Data Project" funded by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).

More information: http://www.princeton.edu/~nes/faculty_kuenkler.html

Mona El-Ghobashy: "Egypt"

Mona El-Ghobashy is Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics at Barnard College. She specializes in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa, social movements and democratization and de-democratization in the Middle East.

More information: http://barnard.edu/profiles/melghoba

Moderator: Michael Doyle

Michael Doyle is the Harold Brown Professor of U.S. Foreign and Security Policy, which is a three-fold appointment in the School of International and Public Affairs, the Department of Political Science, and the Law School. His research interests include international relations theory, international law, and international history; civil wars and international peace-building; and the United Nations. Since 2006, Doyle has been an individual member of the UN Democracy Fund, which was established in 2005 by the UN General Assembly to promote grass-roots democratization around the world. Doyle currently serves as the organization's chairperson. He also co-directs the Center on Global Governance at Columbia Law School.

In 2009, Doyle became a member of the American Philosophical Society, and, that same year, he received the Charles E. Merriam Award from the American Political Science Association. The award is given biennially "to a person whose published work and career represent a significant contribution to the art of government through the application of social science research." In 2001, Doyle was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Doyle previously served as assistant secretary-general and special adviser for policy planning to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He formerly taught at Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. At Princeton, Doyle directed the Center of International Studies and chaired the editorial board of the committee of editors for World Politics. He served as vice president and senior fellow of the International Peace Academy and currently is a member of its board.

More information: http://www.law.columbia.edu/law_school/communications/reports/fall2003/mdoyle