Robert Maguire
Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow
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
Caribbean | Latin America | Civil Society | Democratization | Development |
Environment and Development | Grassroots or "Bottom-Up? Development | Post-Conflict Reconstruction
Phone: (202) 429-4711
E-mail: rmaguire@usip.org
Languages: Creole | French
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, an 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, 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 various organizations on Haiti and Caribbean issues 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 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).