Bio
Stephen R. Weissman, a political scientist and public policy analyst and advocate, has held U.S. academic positions at Fordham University, New Jersey City University, Stanford University, the University of Texas at Dallas and Howard University. He has also been Staff Consultant and Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Africa, Legislative Representative for campaign finance and election reform at Public Citizen and Associate Director for Policy at the Campaign Finance Institute. Since 2013 he has been a member of an informal coalition of representatives of nongovernmental organizations and individual experts promoting U.S. support of democracy and good governance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Weissman's previous books are: American Foreign Policy in the Congo 1960-1964 (Cornell University Press 1974) and A Culture of Deference: Congress's Failure of Leadership in Foreign Policy (Basic Books 1995). His many articles, book chapters, policy reports and media appearances have mainly focused on American foreign policy in various regions of the world, including Congress's role, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert action, international conflict resolution, and the broken system of regulating the financing of U.S. federal elections. His research has benefited from grants by the Ford Foundation, U.S. Institute of Peace and Lyndon B. Johnson Library. He received the award for "best article published in the journal in the past year" from Intelligence and National Security for his November 2010 essay "An Extraordinary Rendition," which shed new light on the CIA's role in the assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.