Kathryn Stoner is the Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (by courtesy) at Stanford University. Prior to coming to Stanford in 2004, she was on the faculty at Princeton University, jointly appointed to the Department of Politics and the Princeton School for International and Public Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School). Her work is focused primarily on contemporary Russian foreign and domestic politics. In addition to dozens of articles and book chapters, she is the author or co-editor of six books: Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective, written and edited with Michael A. McFaul (Johns Hopkins 2013); Autocracy and Democracy in the Post-Communist World, co-edited with Valerie Bunce and Michael A. McFaul (Cambridge, 2010); Resisting the State: Reform and Retrenchment in Post-Soviet Russia (Cambridge, 2006); After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transitions (Cambridge, 2004), coedited with Michael McFaul; and Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional Governance (Princeton, 1997). Her most recent book is Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2021). She received a BA and MA in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in Government from Harvard University.
Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia Konami Chair and Director, Center for Japanese Research, University of British Columbia
Yves Tiberghien (Ph.D. Stanford University, 2002; Harvard Academy Scholar 2006; Fulbright Scholar 1996) is a Professor of Political Science and Director Emeritus of the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia. He is also the Konwakai Chair in Japanese Research and Director of the Center for Japanese Research at UBC. He is currently on study leave from UBC and a visiting professor at the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science (2023-2024). Yves is a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada and a Senior Fellow at the University of Alberta’s China Institute. He is an International Steering Committee Member at Pacific Trade and Development Conference (PAFTAD) and a visiting professor at Tokyo University and Sciences Po Paris. He has held other visiting positions at National Chengchi University (Taipei), GRIPS (Tokyo), and the Jakarta School of Public Policy (Indonesia). In June-November 2022, he served as Member of Canada’s Advisory Committee on the Indo-Pacific Strategy of Canada to the Foreign Minister. In November 2017, he was made a Chevalier de l’ordre national du mérite by the French President. His research focuses on the comparative political economy of East Asia and on global economic and environmental governance. His latest book is The East Asian Covid-19 Paradox. August 2021. University Press (with post-2021 updates found here), with work forthcoming on a new book (titled Game-Changer: How Covid-19 Has Reshaped Societies and Politics in East Asia).
Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security, McGill University Director, Centre for International Peace and Security Studies (CIPSS)
Jennifer M. Welsh is the Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University and director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies (CIPSS). She was previously Professor and Chair in International Relations at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) and Professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where she co-founded the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict. From 2013-2016, she served as Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, on the Responsibility to Protect. Jennifer has published several books and articles on the ethics and politics of armed conflict, the ‘responsibility to protect’, humanitarian action and civilian protection, the UN Security Council, and Canadian foreign policy. Her most recent edited collection, The Individualization of War, is based on a five-year European Research Council Advanced Grant project investigating protection, liability, and accountability in contemporary armed conflict. Her 2016 book, The Return of History: Conflict, Migration and Geopolitics in the 21st Century, was based on her CBC Massey Lectures. Jennifer is co-chair of the Committee on Security Studies of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and sits on the Boards of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. Her research and policy engagement have been recognized through her election as Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and as International Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Professor, American University School of Public Affairs and the School of International Service
Joseph Young is a professor at American University with a joint appointment in the School of Public Affairs and the School of International Service. His research seeks to understand the cross-national causes and consequences of political violence. He has published a book on torture policy and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles across academic disciplines, including political science, economics, criminology, and international studies. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security, and USAID.
Professor of Political Science, Université de Montréal Director, Research Network on Peace Operations and Fellow, Centre for International Research and Studies Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow, International Peace Institute
Marie-Joëlle Zahar is Professor of Political Science, Director of the Research Network on Peace Operations and Fellow at the Centre for International Research and Studies at the Université de Montréal. She is a 2023-2026 Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the International Peace Institute. From March 2013 until August 2015, she served as Senior Expert on Power Sharing on the Standby Team of Senior Mediation Advisers at the UN Department of Political Affairs and Peacebuilding where she remains on the UN mediation roster. In 2017, she was a senior expert in the Office of the Special Envoy of the United Nations for Syria. A graduate of McGill University, her research interests span the politics of conflict-resolution and peacebuilding. Professor Zahar is author, co-author or editor of more than seventy academic books, articles, and chapters. Her research has been funded by the Carnegie Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the United States Institute for Peace among others.
