Jennifer McCoy, PhD, is Founding Director of the Global Studies Institute at Georgia State University and Distinguished University Professor of Political Science. A specialist on democratization, democracy promotion, mediation and conflict prevention, election processes and election observation, and Latin American politics, Dr. McCoy has authored or edited six books and dozens of articles. Her latest book is International Mediation in Venezuela (with Francisco Diez, 2011). Current research projects are The Dilemmas of Transitional Justice in the Colombian Peace Process (funded by USAID and NSF); Regional Organizations and Mediation of Political Crisis; Polarized Societies and Conflict; and The Changing Norm of International Election Monitoring. She teaches courses on comparative democratization, international norms, and Latin American politics.

Dr. McCoy is senior consultant to The Carter Center and served as Director of the Carter Center’s Americas Program 1998-2015, where she created the group of Friends of the Inter-American Democratic Charter group; directed The Carter Center’s projects on Mediation and Monitoring in Venezuela 2002-2004, Ecuador-Colombia Dialogue Group 2008-2010, and U.S.-Andean Dialogue Group 2010-2011; led over a dozen election monitoring missions and organized former President Carter’s historic trips to Cuba in 2002 and 2011. McCoy is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations; member of the International Women’s Forum; and co-chair of the Atlanta chapter of the Scholar’s Strategy Network.

Jennifer McCoy and Francisco Diez, International Mediation in Venezuela,
(United States Institute of Peace, Oct. 2011).

Francisco Diez and Jennifer McCoy, Mediación Internacional en Venezuela,
(Buenos Aires: Editorial Gedisa, 2012).

“Challenges for the Collective Defense of Democracy on the Tenth Anniversary of the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” Latin American Policy (April 2012).

“The Chavez Challenge for Obama: An Inconvenient Marriage or Frosty Separation,” in
The Obama Administration and the Americas: Looking Forward, Abraham F. Lowenthal,
Theodore J. Piccone and Laurence Whitehead, Editors. (Brookings Institute Press,
2010) In Spanish with Bogota: Planeta Press, 2010.

McCoy, Jennifer. 2009. “Engaging Venezuela: 2009 and Beyond.” In The Obama
Administration and the Americas: Agenda for Change. Edited by Abraham
Lowenthal, Theodore Piccone and Laurence Whitehead. Washington D.C.:
Brookings Institute Press.

“Venezuela under Chávez: Beyond Liberalism,” Latin America’s Left Turns:
Politics,Policies and Trajectories of Change. Edited by Maxwell A. Cameron and Eric
Hershberg. Lynne Rienner Press, 2010.

Jennifer McCoy and Jonathan Hartlyn, “The Relative Powerlessness of Elections,” in
Democratization by Elections, edited by Staffan Lindberg. Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2009.

Jonathan Hartlyn, Jennifer McCoy, Thomas Mustillo, “Explaining the Success and Failure of Elections in Latin America,” Comparative Political Studies, 41:1 (Jan 2008): 73-98.

The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela. Edited by Jennifer McCoy and David Myers. Johns Hopkins University Press. November 2004. Reprinted with new Epilogue in 2006. Published in Spanish by El Nacional, Caracas, Venezuela, 2007.