Larry Diamond

Larry Diamond is a leading contemporary scholar in the field of democracy studies. He is presently a professor of Sociology and Political Science (by courtesy) at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative policy think tank. At Stanford, he teaches courses on democratic development and supervises the democracy program at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. He has published extensively in the fields of foreign policy, foreign aid, and democracy.

Larry Diamond is also a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, which is Stanford University’s main center for research on international issues. At the Institute Diamond serves as the director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. The CDDRL’s most recent accomplishment came in the spring of 2011 by building a technological community between Tehrir Square (Cairo, Egypt) and Silicon Valley. This community was fully focused on helping mobilize protesters in Egypt who eventually helped in the downfall of the oppressive President Mubarak. Among the many governmental and nongovernmental agencies that he has advised, Larry Diamond served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2002 to 2003. Diamond was named “ Teacher of the Year” in May 2007. At the June 2007 commencement ceremonies he was awarded the Dinkelspiel Award for Distinctive Contributions to Undergraduate Education. Among the many reasons for Diamond to receive this award it was cited that he fostered dialogue between Jewish and Muslim students. His book Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, published in 2005, was one of the first public critical analysis of America’s postwar strategy in Iraq.

In early 2004, Diamond was a senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. He is an advisory board member for the Roosevelt Institution and a founding Co-Editor of the National Endowment for Democracy's Journal of Democracy. He is also a coordinator of Hoover Institute's Iran Democracy Project, along with Abbas Milani and Michael McFaul. In 2006, Professor Diamond was among the people interviewed by the Iraq Study Group which was chaired by James Baker and Lee H. Hamilton. Diamond has served as an advisor to numerous governmental and international organizations at various points in his life, including the State Department, United Nations, World Bank, and U.S. Agency for International Development.

He was the dissertation adviser for Regina Ip, former police chief of Hong Kong during her years at Stanford.