School of Humanities and Sciences
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Colin Kahl
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science
BioColin H. Kahl is co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation, the inaugural Steven C. Házy Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and a Professor, by courtesy, in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. He is also a Strategic Consultant to the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
From October 2014 to January 2017, he was Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President. In that position, he served as a senior advisor to President Obama and Vice President Biden on all matters related to U.S. foreign policy and national security affairs, and represented the Office of the Vice President as a standing member of the National Security Council Deputies’ Committee. From February 2009 to December 2011, Dr. Kahl was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East at the Pentagon. In this capacity, he served as the senior policy advisor to the Secretary of Defense for Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, and six other countries in the Levant and Persian Gulf region. In June 2011, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service by Secretary Robert Gates.
From 2007 to 2017 (when not serving in the U.S. government), Dr. Kahl was an assistant and associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. From 2007 to 2009 and 2012 to 2014, he was also a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a nonpartisan Washington, DC-based think tank. From 2000 to 2007, he was an assistant professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. In 2005-2006, Dr. Kahl took leave from the University of Minnesota to serve as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he worked on issues related to counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and responses to failed states. In 1997-1998, he was a National Security Fellow at the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University.
Current research includes an assessment of American grand strategy in the Middle East in the post-9/11 era. A second research project focuses on the implications of emerging technologies on nuclear strategic stability.
He has published numerous articles on international security and U.S. foreign and defense policy in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Security, the Los Angeles Times, Middle East Policy, the National Interest, the New Republic, the New York Times, Politico, the Washington Post, and the Washington Quarterly, as well as several reports for CNAS.
His previous research analyzed the causes and consequences of violent civil and ethnic conflict in developing countries, focusing particular attention on the demographic and natural resource dimensions of these conflicts. His book on the subject, States, Scarcity, and Civil Strife in the Developing World, was published by Princeton University Press in 2006, and related articles and chapters have appeared in International Security, the Journal of International Affairs, and various edited volumes.
Dr. Kahl received his B.A. in political science from the University of Michigan (1993) and his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University (2000). -
Terry Karl
Gildred Professor in Latin American Studies, Emerita
BioGildred Professor of Political Science and Latin American Studies (Emeritus)
Bass All-University Fellow for Excellence in Teaching (Emeritus)
International War Crimes and Human Rights Investigator
Terry Lynn Karl earned her Ph.D. (with distinction) from Stanford University. After serving on the faculty in the Government Department of Harvard University, she joined Stanford University’s Department of Political Science in 1987. She served as director of the Center for Latin American Studies for twelve years when it was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a “center of excellence.” She currently works as a war crimes/human rights investigator/ expert witness for several judicial systems: the U.S. (Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security/War Crimes Division), Spain, El Salvador, Colombia, and elsewhere, and non-governmental organizations.
An expert in international and comparative politics, Karl has conducted field research, held visiting appointments, or led workshops on oil politics and extractive resources, democratization and/or human rights throughout Latin America, West Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. She has published widely, with special emphasis on the politics of oil-exporting countries and conflict, transitions from authoritarian rule, problems of democratization, South American and Central America politics, the politics of inequality, U.S. foreign policy, and the resolution of civil wars. A multilingual scholar, her work has been translated into at least 25 languages.
Honors for Research and Teaching: Karl was awarded the Latin American Studies Guillermo O’Donnell Prize in March 2023 for her work on democratization and human rights. She previously received a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from the University of San Francisco and the Miriam Roland Volunteer Service Prize from Stanford University for her “exceptional commitment to public service in the cause of human rights and social justice.” The Latin American Studies Association awarded her the Oxfam Martin Diskin Prize in Toronto in 2010 for “excellence in combining scholarship and policy activism.” Karl has won all of Stanford’s major teaching awards offered during her tenure: the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (1989), the Stanford Medal for Faculty Excellence Fostering Undergraduate Research (1994), and the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Graduate and Undergraduate Teaching (1997), which is the University's highest academic prize. At Harvard, she was chosen as Radcliffe’s “mentor of the year.” She has been recognized for “exceptional teaching throughout her career,” resulting in her permanent appointment as a Stanford Bass All-University Fellow and the Gildred Chair in Latin American Studies. As an untenured professor in 1982, Karl is also known as the first woman to charge a major university with protecting sexual harassers and regain her career, resulting in an apology by Harvard’s President Bacow four decades later and a forthcoming Harvard honor.
Recent Media: Karl has most recently appeared (2020-22) in the Washington Post, Forbes, Politico, Slate, New York Times, NBC, BBC, NPR, Newsweek, Fox News, USA Today, , the Guardian, El Faro, El Comercio, La Prensa Grafica, El Mundo, El Pais, El Nuevo Herald, Just Security, the Conversation, The Council of Foreign Relations, This Day Live, Analitica, El Impulso, Jewish News in Northern California, and the Chronicle of Higher Education on issues ranging from crimes against humanity to the politics of oil to combating sexual harassment. -
Amanda Helen Kennard
Assistant Professor of Political Science, by courtesy, of Environmental Social Sciences and Center Fellow, by courtesy, at the Woods Institute for the Environment
On Leave from 10/01/2024 To 06/30/2025BioAmanda Kennard is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. She studies the politics of climate change and global governance, employing game theory and a range of quantitative methods. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Politics at Princeton University, an M.S. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and a B.A. from New York University.