Tulane University

The Center for Inter-American Policy and Research (CIPR) is proud to introduce its new Post Doctoral Fellows for 2014-2015: Mariano Bertucci and Don Leonard.

Mariano Bertucci completed his PhD in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. His research interests fit most neatly into two camps: the realms of foreign policy, international relations, and comparative politics, with particular attention to the role and importance of habits in shaping foreign policymaking processes and outcomes; and, the realm of scholar-practitioner interactions in international affairs, with particular attention to how to enhance exchanges between scholars and policymakers to improve both policy and research. During his fellowship he plans to continue his research analyzing why Latin American countries with similar political institutions have different policy outcomes, and the different ways in which scholars and policymakers build mutually beneficial connections between the worlds of ideas and action, analysis and policy.

Don Leonard completed his PhD in Government at Cornell University and is currently a Niehaus post-doctoral fellow in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. His dissertation, titled Globalization and State Development, is a book project that leverages the comparative histories of Haiti and the Dominican Republic to shed new light on how international trade shapes development outcomes. During his fellowship he plans to continue working on his manuscript in addition to beginning a project exploring the effect of international trade in natural resources on the stability of democratic institutions in Latin America.