• Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley, 1978
• M.A., University of California-Berkeley, 1973
• B.A., Harvard University, 1970

• Associate Professor

• Comparative Politics
• Political Economy

1998 has already been a busy year for Ernest J. Wilson III, Director of CIDCM.  In January, he spent three weeks in Asia, lecturing on and researching his next book, The Information Revolution and Developing Countries. In February, he was asked by Nelson Mandela's government in South Africa to help prepare a new Information Technology (IT) initiative for greater access to these services.  In March and April, he travels to China to give a speech on IT, give a lecture on U.S.-Africa trade to a number of African Ambassadors, and meet with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, President Clinton's Special Envoy to Africa to discuss the President's upcoming trip to the Continent. Meanwhile, he continues to edit a book on U.S. foreign policy and another on business-government relations in Africa.

Wilson is also deeply engaged in the life of the University.   An Associate Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland since 1992, Wilson has been Director of CIDCM since 1995. He holds a joint appointment in African-American Studies and is a Faculty Associate in UM's schools of Public Affairs and Business and Management.  In Wilson's view, "It is a real treat to be at CIDCM, with such spirited colleagues who take seriously both scholarship and service."   Born in Washington, D.C., Wilson has served in several policy positions in his home town.  In the past five years, he has been Director of International Programs and Resources on the National Security Council, the White House (1993-94); Director of the Policy and Planning Unit, Office of the Director, U.S. Information Agency (1994); and Deputy Director of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (1994-95).   Before joining the UM faculty, Wilson taught at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he directed the Center for Research on Economic Development.  His Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science are from the University of California, Berkeley; his Bachelor's degree is from Harvard.

Wilson has more than 25 years of experience - in research, academia, media, and policy settings - in the areas of development and conflict, the impact of information technology on governance, trade relations, energy impacts on development, and African studies.   He has directed several major research projects concerned with the links between information infrastructure and society, including "The Impact of New Information Technologies on Conflict Management and Development in Africa," as part of the Leland Project on Internet Connectivity in Africa sponsored by the Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as related projects for the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others.

Among Wilson's publications are a recent book, National Information Initiatives: Vision and Policy Design, co-edited with Brian Kahin (MIT Press, 1997); and The United States and Africa: Toward a New Relationship, a Ford Foundation study co-authored with David Gordon of the Overseas Development Council in 1997.  In addition to his scholarly work, Wilson has served in leading capacities on several policy and research advisory bodies, including most recently as Chairman of an Information Technologies Advisory Board of the National Research Council/NAS; Chair of a joint session of the National Research Council and USAID on " Evaluating the Possibilities for Conflict Prevention and Management (1996);" and as Director of a Study Group on " Information and Communications Advances and Investments in Africa" at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. (1996-97).

Wilson serves on advisory committees for a number of organizations, including the Council on Foreign Relations, the Overseas Development Council, and on editorial boards such as the Journal of Democracy.

• Go here for selected publications by Ernest Wilson.

• ewilson@cidcm.umd.edu
• Curriculum Vitae