Francis Fukuyama
Bestselling Contemporary Political Theorist


Dr. Francis Fukuyama is a professor at Stanford University—the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies—and a longstanding observer of global political and economic issues, with a special emphasis on the development of democratic political systems around the world. He is also Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford. He has previously taught at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, where he was the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and director of the School’s International Development program. Dr. Fukuyama has written widely on issues relating to democratization and international political economy.

 

Dr. Fukuyama’s book The End of History and the Last Man has appeared in over twenty foreign editions, and  The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution was a 2011 New York Times Notable Book and a Kirkus and Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year. In 2014, he released the heavily anticipated follow-up, Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to Globalization. His other books include America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy, and Falling Behind: Explaining the Development Gap between Latin America and the United States. His 2018 release, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, examines modern identity politics.

 

Dr. Francis Fukuyama has served as a member of the Political Science Department at the RAND Corporation in periods from the 1970s to the 1990s. In 1981-82 and in 1989, he was a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the US Department of State, first 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 2001-2004 he served on the President’s Council on Bioethics, established by President George W. Bush. Dr. Fukuyama received his B.A. in classics from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. From 1996-2000, he was the Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University.

 

Dr. Francis Fukuyama is chairman of the editorial board of The American Interest, which he helped to found in 2005. He is a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute, and a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He holds honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, Doane College, Doshisha University and Kansai University in Japan, and Aarhus University in Denmark.  He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation, the Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy, and a 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 lives with his wife Laura Holmgren in California and has three children. Follow Dr. Fukuyama on Twitter.

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HARDCOVER
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

A short book about the challenges to liberalism from the right and the left by the bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order.


PAPERBACK
IdentityThe Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The New York Times bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order offers a provocative examination of modern identity politics: its origins, its effects, and what it means for domestic and international affairs of state


PAPERBACK
Political Order and Political DecayFrom the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The second volume of the bestselling landmark work on the history of the modern state


PAPERBACK
The Origins of Political OrderFrom Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

A landmark history of the origins of modern democratic societies by one of our most important political thinkers.


The Origins of Political Order Dr. Fukuyama draws from his latest book to explain and interpret contemporary global politics. The first of a major two-volume work—hailed by The New York Times Book Review as "ambitious, erudite and eloquent . . . undeniably a major achievement by one of the leading public intellectuals of our time"—The Origins of Political Order tells the story of how humans developed the political institutions we have today, starting with politics among our primate ancestors and tribal societies, and leading up to the eve of the French Revolution.
Trust in Societies and Organizations Drawing from his 1995 book Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, Francis Fukuyama discusses where trust comes from, what it does, and how to get more of it.
Our Posthuman Future Dr. Fukuyama discusses the social and political consequences of new developments in biotechnology.
Identity, Religion, and Immigration in Europe and the United States








Watch Francis Fukuyama’s C-Span discussion of politics, international affairs, liberalism and more.

Check out Francis Fukuyama’s article in the Wall Street Journal discussing how the democratic world order is evolving toward equality and individual freedom.

Learn more about Francis Fukuyama in a recent New York Times feature.

Listen to Francis Fukuyama’s full-hour interview on KERA’s Think.

San Francisco Chronicle gave a comprehensive review of Identity and also recommended Identity.

Watch Francis Fukuyama’s interview on Al Jazeera’s Up Front.

Identity is one of The Times (UK)’s best Political books of 2018 and one of the Financial Times’ best Political books of 2018.

The Hindu (India) reviewed Identity in conjunction with Asad Haider’s Mistaken Identity.

Francis sits down with NPR All Things Considered to discuss Identity. The New York Times Book Review reviews Identity and features it as an Editor’s Choice. The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker review Identity. Francis discusses the erosion of political order with the Economist. Check out Francis’ work for the American Interest. Francis on the rise of China, East Asia tensions, and the role of the United States for the Diplomat. The Guardian, SPIEGEL, and the NY Times interview Francis on “the end of history.”

The Economist – Open Future – Fukuyama answered Five Questions about identity politics accompanied by an excerpt from IDENTITY and he appeared on The Economist Asks podcast.

Fareed Zakaria discussed Identity in conjunction with an interview with Bono about Europe’s populism in The Washington Post – 9/20 and also on his show Fareed Zakaria GPS/ CNN. The article was picked up by The Arizona Daily Star.

Read an article from Stanford Magazine on identity politics by Fukuyama.

Find out more about Francis Fukuyama and follow him on Twitter.

 

"Everything went so well yesterday. We had a sold out event, and I didn’t get anything but positive reviews about both the luncheon and presentation!"
- Victoria Van Dragt, Hauenstein Center at Grand Valley State University

" An excellent lecture, with clarity of reasoning and a very interesting content. It was much appreciated by all."
- Frederico Estrella, Tendências Consultoria Integrada

“Frank was incredibly generous with his thoughts and time. My staff, in particular, got a lot out of the experience. The school and the audience was amazed by his command of world politics (and history!) and it gave us lots of food for thought.”
- University of Toronto

Praise for Identity “Fukuyama is as erudite as ever, but manages here also to make his writing accessible and digestible”
- The Irish Times

“[Identity] is much more than a review of American public opinion . . . it is as wise as it is compact, travelling at great speed through difficult terrain to a sensible conclusion.”
- Daniel Finkelstein, The Times

“It is doubtful whether any author better encapsulates the optimism of liberal democrats . . . [Identity] is in itself an indictment of the perilous times we live in today.”
- The Evening Standard

“[Fukuyama’s] new book Identity remains as critical of liberal modernity as before, now focusing on the identity claims that threaten to destroy it.”
- The Financial Times