Robert Paarlberg

Robert Paarlberg is the Betty Freyhof Johnson Class of 1944 Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College and Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. He received his B.A. in government from Carleton College in Minnesota and his Ph.D. in government from Harvard. He has served as visiting professor of government at Harvard, as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate, and as an officer in the U.S. Naval Intelligence Command.

Paarlberg's principal research interests are international agricultural and environmental policy. His latest book, Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out of Africa (Harvard University Press, March 2008), explains why poor African farmers are denied access to productive technologies, particularly genetically engineered seeds with improved resistance to insects and drought.

He also has published books on the use of food as a weapon (Food Trade and Foreign Policy, Cornell University Press), on international agricultural trade negotiations (Fixing Farm Trade, Council on Foreign Relations), on environmentally sustainable farming in developing countries (Countrysides at Risk, Overseas Development Council), on U.S. foreign economic policy (Leadership Abroad Begins at Home, Brookings), on the reform of U.S. agricultural policy (Policy Reform in American Agriculture, Chicago University Press, with David Orden and Terry Roe), and on the regulation of biotechnology in developing countries (The Politics of Precaution, Johns Hopkins).

Paarlberg's most recent research focus has been on the regulation of modern technology, including biotechnology. In 2004-05 he published articles on the competitive posture of scientific research in the United States and on the global stem cell research competition. He has worked most intensively on policies toward genetically modified crops and foods in developing countries. In recent years he has done research on this topic in Kenya, Zambia, Brazil, Cameroon, Senegal, India, China and Argentina.

Paarlberg has also recently completed major studies of regional policy harmonization toward biotechnology in eastern and southern Africa, for the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) on the politics of accepting biofortified food crops in developing countries, commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Paarlberg is currently a member of the Board of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the National Research Council of the National Academies.  He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Winrock International, a member of the Emerging Markets Advisory Committee at the United States Department of Agriculture, a scientific liaison officer to IFPRI from the U.S. Agency for International Development, and a consultant to the National Intelligence Council (NIC), USAID, IFPRI and the World Bank.

Paarlberg was raised in West Lafayette, Ind., and currently resides in Watertown, Mass. His wife, Marianne Perlak, is art director at Harvard University Press.


Profile last updated: 1/08