The Asia Foundation

Expertise: Political, economic, and social issues in the Philippines; Southeast Asian relations; U.S.-Philippines relations; local governance; the non-governmental sector in the Philippines; and corruption.

Steven Rood is The Asia Foundation’s country representative for the Philippines and Pacific Island Nations. In his concurrent role as regional advisor for Local Governance, he helps to build local government, decentralization, and municipal government programs throughout the region. Dr. Rood, an expert on local government, decentralization, and public opinion polling, has been a consultant to both government and non-governmental organizations, and served as professor of Political Science at the University of the Philippines College Baguio from 1981 until joining the Foundation in 1999. He was the only foreign faculty member with tenure in the University of the Philippines system.

Dr. Rood is the author of a number of works on Filipino politics. His most recent publications are Forging Sustainable Peace in Mindanao: The Role of Civil Society (East-West Center Washington, Policy Studies 17, 2005); "Elections as Complicated and Important Events in the Philippines," in How Asia Votes (John Fuh-Sheng Hsieh and David Newman, New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2002); "An Exploratory Study of Graft and Corruption in the Philippines" (with Linda Luz B. Guerrero) in The PSSC Social Science Information, volume 27, number 1 (January-June 1999); "Decentralization, Democracy, and Development" in David G. Timberman (ed.) The Philippines at the Crossroads (The Asia Society, 1998); "NGOs and and Indigenous Peoples" in G. Sidney Silliman and Lela G. Nobel (eds.); and Organizing for Democracy: NGOs, Civil Society, and the Philippine State (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998).

Education: B.A. in political science, University of Washington; M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Boston University.

PUBLICATION:
Foreign Sustainable Peace in Mindanao: The Role of Civil Society