The Asia Foundation

Expertise: Governance and politics in Asia; political economy; civil society; strategic planning; uses of information technology in development; Islam in Asia; South and Southeast Asia, especially Afghanistan and Indonesia.

William S. Cole is the director of The Asia Foundation's Governance, Law, and Civil Society program where he is responsible for coordinating democratic governance, the rule of law, and conflict management. He concurrently serves as the director of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) program. Dr. Cole plays a central role in strategic planning at the country level and has been instrumental in introducing new program areas and directions for the Foundation. These include small and medium business policy reform, counter corruption programming, information technology, and conflict management. He has contributed significantly to the re-establishment of the Foundation's office and programs in Afghanistan, where he spent most of 2002. Prior to his current position, he served as director of the Economic Policy Reform program in Indonesia. Dr. Cole has written widely and is a frequent speaker on topics related to Asian development, Afghanistan, democracy and governance, and the political economy of social and economic reform.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Cole served under an appointment to USAID in the Bureau for the Near East, where he established the Governance and Democracy Program immediately following the first Gulf War, and in the Bureau for Europe and the former Soviet Union, where he established a political economy strategic planning unit. Dr. Cole lived in Asia for more than 13 years working in foreign aid and research-related positions focused on economic policy research, democracy and governance reform, social change, strategic planning and management, and project design and evaluation.

Education: B.S. in natural sciences and mathematics from Washington & Lee University; M.A. and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Washington University.