Harold Trinkunas

Harold Trinkunas is a nonresident senior fellow in the Latin America Initiative in the Foreign Policy program, and the deputy director for the Center for International Security and Cooperation of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. His research focuses on Latin American politics, particularly on issues related to foreign policy, governance, and security. He has studied the role of armed nonstate actors in local governance, Brazil’s emergence as a major power, and Latin American contributions to global governance on issues including energy policy, drug policy reform, and Internet governance. Trinkunas has also written on terrorism financing, borders, and ungoverned spaces.

Trinkunas is a co-author of “Aspirational Power: Brazil’s Long Road to Global Influence” (Brookings Institution Press, 2016) and “Militants, Criminals, and Warlords: The Challenge of Local Governance in an Age of Disorder” (Brookings Institution Press, 2017) and the author of “Crafting Civilian Control of the Military in Venezuela" (University of North Carolina Press, 2005). He co-edited and contributed to “American Crossings: Border Politics in the Western Hemisphere,” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), “Terrorism Financing and State Responses" (Stanford University Press, 2007), "Global Politics of Defense Reform" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), and "Ungoverned Spaces: Alternatives to State Authority in an Era of Softened Sovereignty" (Stanford University Press, 2010).Other publications include: “Alternative Governance in Latin America” with Anne Clunan in "Routledge Handbook of Latin American Security" (Routledge, 2016); “Converging on the Future of Global Internet Governance: The United States and Brazil” (Brookings Institution, July 2015); “Better Than You Think: Reframing Inter-American Relations” (Brookings Institution, March 2015); “Brazil’s Rise: Seeking Influence on Global Governance” (Brookings Institution, April 2014); "Changing Energy Dynamics in the Western Hemisphere: Impacts on Central America and the Caribbean (Brookings Institution, April 2014); “Reordering Regional Security in Latin America,” Journal of International Affairs 66.2 (Spring/Summer 2013); “Latin America’s Growing Security Gap” with David Pion-Berlin, Journal of Democracy 22.1 (January 2011); “Civilian Praetorianism and Military Shirking during Constitutional Crises in Latin America” with David Pion-Berlin, Comparative Politics 42.4 (July 2010); and “Attention Deficits: Why Politicians and Scholars Ignore Defense Policy in Latin America” with David Pion-Berlin, Latin American Research Review 42.3 (Fall 2007).

Trinkunas previously served as an associate professor and chair of the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He has taught around the world on issues related to security and defense as part of the faculty of the Center for Civil-Military Relations at the Naval Postgraduate School. He has been a visiting professor at the Center of International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and at the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies at the University of California San Diego. He received his doctorate in political science from Stanford University in 1999, and a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. He was born in Maracaibo and raised in Caracas, Venezuela.

Affiliations:

• American Political Science Association, member
• Latin American Studies Association, member
• International Studies Association, member
• International Political Science Association, member
• Minerva Research Initiative, member

Education

• Ph.D., Political Science, Stanford University, 1999
• M.A., Political Science, Stanford University, 1993
• B.A. Cum Laude with honors, Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, 1991
• B.A. Cum Laude, Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1991