The American State in a Multipolar World

Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Director of Stanford’s Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy; and until recently, Mosbacher Director of FSI’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Professor Fukuyama received his B.A. from Cornell University in Classics and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University. He has written extensively on issues in development and international politics. Prof. Fukuyama’s influential book, The End of History and the Last Man (1992), has appeared in over 20 foreign editions. Prior to joining Stanford, he has served as a member of the Political Science Department of the RAND Corporation, on the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. State Department, and as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics between 2001-2004, and he has taught at George Mason University and Johns Hopkins. Prof. Fukuyama’s most recent book is “Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment” (2018).

Martha E. Pollack is the fourteenth president of Cornell University and professor of computer science, information science, and linguistics. She took office on April 17, 2017.

As the only land-grant university in the Ivy League, Cornell combines the highest standards of teaching and research with a public mission to discover, preserve, and disseminate knowledge. President Pollack is committed to building upon Cornell’s academic distinction and unique strengths, investing in the creativity and experience of our exceptional faculty while also enhancing our culture of “educational verve” through new, evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning. She sees Cornell’s foundational commitment to diversity and equity as central to our identity and success, and has engaged the entire university in the work of building an open, inclusive community whose members communicate effectively across differences. In her leadership of Cornell’s many units and campuses, President Pollack works to cultivate productive and meaningful synergies across disciplines and geographies, realizing a vision of “One Cornell” that capitalizes on the complementary strengths of our urban and rural identities.

An expert in artificial intelligence with a research focus on natural-language processing, automated planning, and the design of assistive technology for people with cognitive impairment, President Pollack earned a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics at Dartmouth College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She was previously provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Michigan, where she was also a professor of computer science and information.