Carlos Blanco

Carlos Blanco
Department of International Relations
154 Bay State Road
Room 406
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
(617) 353-5400
(617) 358-0190 fax
cblanco@bu.edu

Visiting Professor of International Relations. (BA, Universidad Central de Venezuela; MA, Centro de Estudios del Desarrolla; PhD, Universidad Central de Venezuela).

Specialization: Governance; Latin American Political Reform and Decentralization; Authoritarianism; Latin American Studies

Carlos Blanco’s research and teaching focus on questions of political and institutional developments, with emphasis on Venezuela and Latin America. He works in particular on the impact of leftist regimes in that region.

Blanco’s books include Revolucion y Desilusión / La Venezuela de Hugo Chávez; La Reforma del Estado y la Comisión Presidencial para la Reforma del Estado; Venezuela, Del Siglo XX al Siglo XXI: Un Proyecto Para Construirla (editor). He has published articles in the Stockholm Review of Latin American Studies, the ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Venezuelan Chapter of the Club of Rome publications, the Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana (Spain), Quórum, Revista del Pensamiento Iberoamericano (Spain), and in the publications of the Presidential Commission for the Reform of the State (Venezuela). He authored a chapter titled “The Latin American Military Enigma” in the book The Construction of Democracy, by Jorge Dominguez and Anthony Jones, and a chapter titled “Venezuela y Sus Conflictos” in the book Política Pública y Democracia en América Latina, by Freddy Mariñez Navarro and Vidal Garza Cantú.

Blanco has also worked on studies for the Interamerican Development Bank (La Governabilidad Democrática en la Región Andina / Democratic Governability in the Andean Region and Decentralization in Venezuela), for the Instituto Internacional de Governabilidad in Barcelona, Spain, (Evaluation Report on Economic, Political, and Social situation in Venezuela / Institutional Analysis on Venezuela), and for the United Nations Development Program (Evaluation of UNDP Governance Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean Area / Decentralization and Intermediate Levels). In 2008, he organized a conference in Boston titled World Trends and Their Impact on Latin America, which was sponsored by the IR Department and Venezuelan chambers of business.

Blanco is a Professor at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Fellow of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, and Visiting Scholar at Boston University, International Relations Department (since 2005). He has been a Research Scholar in the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. Blanco served as Minister for the Reform of the State and President of the Presidential Commission for State Reform in Venezuela.

He has been a TV presenter and he founded and directed a weekly political magazine, Primicia. He has also composed weekly articles for newspapers and magazines. Blanco has been President and Secretary General of the Latin-American Center for Administrative Development (CLAD).

Professor Blanco teaches the following courses:

Introduction to Latin American Politics and International Relations (IR/PO 367)

Democracy in Latin America (IR 566)

U.S.-Latin American Relations (IR/PO 568)

The Latin American Military (IR 572)

Reform of the State: Political and Institutional Reforms in Latin America (IR 768)