John Harbeson is currently Professor of Political Science Emeritus as well as a professorial lecturer for the African Studies Program, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He is a current member of the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies Research Council. 

Previously, he was a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and a Visiting Fellow of the Center of International Studies at Princeton University. While on leave from his academic positions, he twice served in the U.S. Agency for International Development, most recently as Regional Democracy and Governance Advisor for Eastern and Southern Africa. Harbeson received grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. He has taught at the Universities of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Nairobi, and Kenya. He chairs the editorial board for the Lynne Rienner series on Challenge and Change in Contemporary African Politics. Combining the study of politics with its practice, he was twice elected to the Board of Trustees (city council) of Croton-on-Hudson, NY.