Guide to Specialists

John Dempsey
Head of Office/Rule of Law Advisor

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Phone: 0093-(0)799-321-349

E-mail: jdempsey@usip.org

Languages: Thai

Dempsey joined USIP as a rule of law advisor in December 2007 and is the head of USIP’s office in Kabul, where he has lived since January 2003. He manages a staff of Afghan project officers responsible for implementation and oversight of the Institute’s projects and grant programs in Afghanistan. Prior to coming to USIP, Dempsey worked as an advisor to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Justice and other justice institutions in the country through USAID’s Afghanistan Rule of Law Program (2005-2007), working to reform the country’s legal system.

In 2004-2005, Dempsey served as an advisor to Afghanistan’s Judicial Reform Commission through USAID’s Afghanistan Governance and Legal Reform Project. Prior to working with USAID, he spent a year and half working as the property law expert with the International Rescue Committee in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province. In this role, Dempsey worked to assess and address land and housing concerns that returning refugees face, and he advised Afghanistan’s Constitutional Review Commission on property law-related matters. Concurrently, Dempsey was the Kabul representative of the American Bar Association’s Afghanistan Transitional Commercial Law Project.

Dempsey was an attorney with Linklaters LLP in New York City from 2000-2003 and was a recipient of the firm’s pro bono award for work representing political asylum seekers in the United States. He was a United Nations Association Fellow with the World Bank in 1997, prior to which he taught English at a university in Chiang Rai, Thailand, where he lived for two years.

Dempsey received his J.D. and his M.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University and his B.A. in history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Publications:

• "Reforming Afghanistan’s Justice Sector," in Deconstructing the Afghan Security Sector, edited by Eden Cole, Alex Dowling, and Candace Karp (Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces, forthcoming).
• "Discussion Paper: Afghanistan’s Legislative Process," presented at Afghanistan Justice Sector Donors’ Conference (July 2007).
• Protecting Property Rights in Afghanistan: A Guide for Practitioners, contributor (UNHCR, June 2005).
• "Afghanistan’s Legislative Process: The Role of the Ministry of Justice Legislative Drafting Unit," USAID’s Afghanistan Governance and Legal Reform Project (March 2005).
• "Strengthening U.S.—Indonesian Strategic Relations," National Strategy Forum Review (Spring 2005).
• "Rethinking United States’ Policy in Afghanistan," National Strategy Forum Review (Winter 2003).
• "Suggested Chapter on Land Rights for Afghanistan’s Constitution," International Rescue Committee (August 2003–also presented to Afghanistan’s Constitutional Review Commission).
• "Terrorism and the Asian View of America: Why Human Rights and Economics Matter," National Strategy Forum Review (Summer 2003).
• "Privatization in Thailand after the 1997 Economic Crisis," Journal of Law and Policy in International Business (Georgetown University Law Center, Winter 2000).
• "Democracy in Thailand: Political Culture as Obstacle," The Georgetown Compass (Spring 1998).