Guide to Specialists

Robert Maguire
Senior Fellow, Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program
October 1, 2008 – July 31, 2009

Project Focus:
Resource Allocation for Stability and Development in Transitional Societies: Strategic Decision-Making in the Case of Haiti

Download print-quality image

Phone: (202) 429-4711

E-mail: rmaguire@usip.org

Languages: Creole | French

Associate professor of International Affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences at Trinity University in Washington D.C. and director of the Trinity Haiti Program Robert Maguire’s research project examines how decisions regarding international resources have helped or hindered stability in Haiti. The project examines paradigms of rural/urban and internal/external partners in resource allocation in order to understand why international efforts have had such trouble achieving and sustaining success.

Maguire has been involved with Haiti since the mid 1970s through affiliations with the Inter-American Foundation, the Department of State, and Johns Hopkins, Brown and Georgetown Universities. In December 2001, Maguire received Rockefeller Foundation support for his work on Haiti at Trinity, allowing him to extend his work into issues related to Haitian Diaspora populations. From 1994 to 2001, Maguire directed the Georgetown University Haiti Program, supported by the Ford Foundation to serve as a vehicle for the dissemination of information and analysis on issues linked to Haiti and to U.S.-Haiti policy. Since 1990, Dr. Maguire has served as the chair of Haiti Advanced Area Studies at the Department of State's Foreign Service Institute.

Maguire has consulted on Haiti and Caribbean issues for a variety of government agencies and international and non-governmental organizations and regularly makes public presentations that address issues of development in Haiti, the role of the international community and U.S.-Haiti policy. Prior to joining academia, Maguire served in the federal government with the Inter-American Foundation, the Department of State, and an earlier tour as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Caribbean island of Dominica.

Maguire holds an M.A. in Latin American studies from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in geography from McGill University.

Publications:

• “An Indefatigable Spirit of Development in Haiti,” Grassroots Development (Vol. 29, No. 1, 2008).
• “Assisting a Neighbour: Haiti’s Challenge to North American Policy Makers,” in Haiti: Hope for a Fragile State, edited by Yasmine Shamsie et al., (Wilfred Laurier Press, 2006).
• “US Policy Toward Haiti: Engagement or Estrangement,” Trinity Haiti Program Haiti Papers #8 (November 2003).
• Haiti and the United States: Linked by History and Community — An Educational Website: www.Haiti-USA.org (Trinity Haiti Program 2003).