Dr Joseph S. Tulchin is a Latin American scholar with published research on hemispheric security and international affairs, citizen security and police reform, reducing inequality and the governance of cities.

His areas of expertise are US foreign policy, inter-American relations, contemporary Latin America, strategic planning, and social science research methodology.

Dr Tulchin is a Visiting Fellow at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.

While in residence, he is writing a book on United States Relations with Central America. His central concern is to explore why small or weak nations, subject in the past to frequent outside intervention, have difficulty today seeing themselves as active players in the world community and why they cannot formulate autonomous foreign policies – what are the necessary conditions for a sense of agencies in international affairs.

Dr Tulchin has 25 years teaching experience as Professor of History and Director of International Programs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he edited the Latin American Research Review, and as a faculty member of Yale University.

He holds a PhD in history from Harvard University, read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge, UK, and received his BA from Amherst College, Massachusetts, USA.

During his career he has taught or lectured in nearly every country in the hemisphere, published more than 100 scholarly articles and more than 70 books and has been a consultant to multilateral agencies, such as the World Bank, the OAS and UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme), as well as USAID (United States Agency for International Development).

His current consultancies include evaluating the National Endowment for Democracy’s programme of grants in Colombia over the last decade, and providing an overview and analysis for the Center for Naval Analysis of United States security relations with Central America in the past two decades.

Dr Tulchin is a member of the task force on Hemispheric Security Issues at the Center for Hemispheric Policy of the University of Miami.

He participates in a series of workshops on Strategic Culture in Latin America, organised by the Applied Research Center of Florida International University.