Robert A. Pastor

Robert Pastor has been Professor of International Relations and Founder and Co-Director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University since 2002. He was also Vice President of International Affairs at AU between 2002-2007 where he expanded study abroad programs, established an American University in Nigeria, and created a new one-year program for international students. From 1985, Dr. Pastor was Professor of Political Science at Emory University and a Fellow and Founding Director of the Carter Center's Latin American and Caribbean, the Democracy Program, and the China Election Project. Dr. Pastor served as Director of Latin American Affairs on the National Security Council, was nominated to be Ambassador to Panama, and was the Senior Advisor to the Carter - Nunn - Powell Mission in 1994 to negotiate a restoration of constitutional government to Haiti. At The Carter Center, he organized the Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers, which monitored and mediated hundreds of elections in more than 40 countries around the world. Between 1999 and 2005, he was a member of the Governing Board of Common Cause, a grass-roots group to improve democracy in the United States, and also President of Common Cause Georgia. He served as Special Advisor to the Carter-Ford National Commission on Election Reform and was a member and Executive Director of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by Jimmy Carter and James A. Baker, III, which issued a report in 2005 with specific recommendations on ways to improve election administration in the United States. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard University and is the author or editor of 16 books, including a comparative study of the electoral process in the three countries of North America and Democracy in the Americas.