Prof. Francis Fukuyama, one of the World’s Top 100 Thinkers and political scientist who has been referred to as one of the leading public intellectuals of our time will deliver a lecture based on his most recent book, ‘The Origins of Political Order,’ at Strathmore Business School on Wednesday, 22nd January 2014 from 5:30pm.

The lecture will provide a sweeping account of how today’s basic political institutions were developed and why we continue to live in a world where democracy, prosperity and law and order are unevenly distributed. Prof. Fukuyama will concentrate on the problem of democratic order and will seek to address the reason why some societies have gone down the democratic route to stability while others have remained stuck with autocracy?

The lecture which has been organized by the Strathmore Business School’s Center for Public Policy and Competitiveness in collaboration with the Leadership Academy of Development, an affiliate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced and International Studies will further explore the provenance of three basic political institutions – the state, the rule of law, and accountability – that constitute the basis for modern government.

For more information about the lecture, contact Edwin on eadoyo@strathmore.edu on or before 20th January 2014.

About Prof. Francis Fukuyama

Prof. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a resident in FSI’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, effective July 2010. Previously he worked at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University, where he was the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and director of SAIS’ International Development program.

Prof. Fukuyama has written widely on issues relating to questions concerning democratization and international political economy. His book, The End of History and the Last Man, was published by Free Press in 1992 and has appeared in over twenty foreign editions. His most recent books are The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy, and Falling Behind: Explaining the Development Gap between Latin America and the United States.

He received his B.A. from Cornell University in classics, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in Political Science. He was a member of the Political Science Department of the RAND Corporation from 1979-1980, then again from 1983-89, and from 1995-96. In 1981-82 and in 1989 he was a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the US Department of State, the first time as a regular member specializing in Middle East affairs, and then as Deputy Director for European political-military affairs. In 1981-82 he was also a member of the US delegation to the Egyptian-Israeli talks on Palestinian autonomy. From 1996-2000 he was Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University. He served as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2001-2004.

Prof. Fukuyama is chairman of the editorial board of a new magazine, The American Interest, which he helped to found in 2005. He holds honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, Doane College, Doshisha University (Japan), and Kansai University (Japan). He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rand Corporation, member of the Board of Governors of the Pardee Rand Graduate School, and member of the advisory boards for the Journal of Democracy, the Inter-American Dialogue, and The New America Foundation. He is a member of the American Political Science Association and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is married and has three children.

For more information about his work and other mentions, please follow the links below:

• The Challenge for Africa and Dead Aid by Francis Fukuyama, SLATE
• National Identity can drive Development by Francis Fukuyama
• A model Democracy is not emerging in Iraq by Francis Fukuyama
• Down with Everything by Thomas Friedman
• Decay of American Political Institutions by Francis Fukuyama
• A conversation with Francis Fukuyama on the Origins of Political Order: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace