Juliana Geran Pilon

Faculty Chairman; Director, Center for Culture and Security; Professor of Politics and Culture

Dr. Juliana Geran Pilon is Faculty Chairman at the Institute of World Politics, and Director of IWP's Center for Culture and Security.

She has also taught at the National Defense University and the Air University's Air Force Culture and Language Center. Her most recent book is Soulmates: Resurrecting Eve (Transaction Publishers, 2011), which follows an anthology she edited, entitled Cultural Intelligence for Winning the Peace, published by IWP Press in September 2009.

Her previous book, Why America is Such a Hard Sell: Beyond Pride and Prejudice was published in 2007, as was Every Vote Counts: The Role of Elections in Building Democracy, which she co-edited with Richard Soudriette. Her book The Bloody Flag: Post-Communist Nationalism in Eastern Europe -- Spotlight on Romania was published by Rutgers University Press in 1991, and her autobiographical book Notes From the Other Side of Night was published in the U.S. in 1979 (republished in 1994) then translated into Romanian in 1993.

Her anthology on civic education, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, Ironic Points of Light, was published in Estonian and Russian in 1998. She has also written and edited a textbook on civic education, which is being used, in country-specific versions, throughout Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, endorsed by the Departments of Education in these countries. She has published over two hundred articles and reviews on international affairs, human rights, literature, and philosophy, and has made frequent appearances on radio and television.

During the 1990s, she was first the Director and later the Vice President for Programs at IFES, where she designed, conducted, and managed projects related to a wide variety of democratization projects. Born in Romania, she emigrated with her family and arrived in the U.S. as a teenager. After receiving her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago, she held post-doctoral fellowships in international relations at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and at the Institute of Humane Studies. She has also taught at Roosevelt University, Indiana University, Emory University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University, American University, the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, and Rochester Institute of Technology. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served on the board of advisors of the Auschwitz-based human rights organization Oswiencim Institute for Human Rights and the International Advisory Board of B‘nai Brith.

Upon her departure from IFES, on Sept. 10, 2002, the Board of Directors passed a resolution in gratitude “for her many years of distinguished service and her tremendous contributions to [IFES’] cause,” commending her “for her efforts in demonstrating that freedom and democratic ideals matter and that they are the primary tools needed to achieve a more peaceful and democratic world.”

To view all of Dr. Pilon's publications, please visit her website: http://julianageranpilon.yolasite.com/.

Professional Experience

Formerly Vice President, International Foundation for Election Systems;
Senior Policy Analyst, The Heritage Foundation; and
Adjunct Professor at George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and St. Mary's College (MD).
Member, Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Pilon is the author of The Bloody Flag: Post-Communist Nationalism in Eastern Europe (Transaction, 1992); Notes from the Other Side of Night (University Press of America, 1994); and Why America is Such a Hard Sell: Beyond Pride and Prejudice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).

Pilon Resume

Education

B.A., 1969, University of Chicago
M.A., 1971, University of Chicago
Ph.D., 1974, University of Chicago

Contact: jpilon@iwp.edu

Expert Areas

Global Issues
International Organizations
Public Diplomacy
Foreign Culture

Juliana Pilon discusses Soulmates

VIDEO: Juliana Pilon discusses her book Soulmates: Resurrecting Eve with Zainab Al-Suwaij, co-founder and Executive Director of the American Islamic Congress.

Cultural Intelligence for Strategy and Analysis

"It is impossible to understand the current national security challenges facing the United States without appreciating the role of culture in counterinsurgency and the fight against terrorism."
-Dr. Juliana Pilon

Principal Professor

Juliana Geran Pilon

Conflict Prevention and Stabilization: Democracy Building in U.S. Foreign Policy

"Democratization, sometimes known as 'nation-building' and, most recently, as 'stability and reconstruction,' has played an increasingly central role in U.S. foreign policy. But neither the strategic objectives nor the tactics have been properly thought out in every instance, despite the heavy investment by the U.S. and its allies, and high stakes for world peace."

-Dr. Juliana Pilon

Principal Professor

Juliana Geran Pilon

Cultural and National Identity in World Politics

This course examines the meaning of nationalism, its origins in Western Europe subsequently spread throughout the world, as well as the relationship between nationalism, ethnicity, historic tradition, linguistic and religious identity, with specific emphasis on the various mindsets of Islamists.

This course is formerly titled Nationalism and Islamism.

Principal Professor

Juliana Geran Pilon