Development

Research Interest

Thematic Area: Foreign Policy

IIS's programming on foreign policy operates at the intersection of scholarship and practice. We convene events and create learning opportunities that bring Berkeley faculty, students, and the public into conversation with diplomats, policymakers, and members of the foreign service.

We examine how institutional structures, executive power, and political constraints shape foreign policy decisions. We have hosted recent events to examine the wars in Iran and Myanmar, the impacts of the collapse of USAID, and the ways in which recent shifts in U.S. foreign policy objectives affect trade...

Thematic Area: Cross-Cutting Global Challenges

Democratic erosion, climate disruption, and forced migration are not isolated policy problems. They present sweeping challenges to decision-makers across the world. IIS convenes students, scholars and practitioners to examine these challenges from a multidisciplinary, global perspective that resists siloed thinking. IIS's approach to this work stream is connective, focusing on speaker and panel series with experts.

Thematic Area: Conflict & Fragility

IIS connects Berkeley's community with frontline humanitarian organizations, human rights groups, conflict analysts and practitioners to examine conflict and fragility in today's world, and build understanding of impacts on communities and societies.
Recent speakers have discussed conflict and human rights in specific contexts; others draw connections to shed light on global trends and patterns.

Cloud Capitalism and the AI Transition

April 2, 2026
Berkeley Economy & Society Initiative
April 09, 2026| 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM|820 Social Sciences Building Cloud Capitalism and the AI Transition With Kathy Thelen, Ford Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Join MIT political scientist Kathy Thelen at BESI as she explores the origins and implications of the new cloud business model powering the AI boom. She’ll elaborate on how this model differs from the traditional platform model out of which it grew, as well as the technological, political, and distributional impacts of the rise of this new business model. She...

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGJHd26W4iVk87J58LodpCjmLb2cj3idodGERn…

Trevor Jackson

Associate Professor of History and Political Economy
History and Political Economy

Trevor Jackson is assistant professor of History and Political Economy. He studies capitalism, inequality, and financial crisis, mostly but not exclusively in early modern Europe.

Hector Cardenas

Professor of Practice in Public Policy
Goldman School of Public Policy

Hector Cardenas is a continuing lecturer at the Goldman School of Public Policy, the President and CEO of The Ergo Group and serves on the board of directors of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (Comexi). His international interests include comparative regulatory regimes, development cooperation, sustainability and North American economic integration. He teaches a course in US-Mexico Policy Relations at GSPP.

Cecilia Mo

Associate Professor
Political Science

Cecilia Mo is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies behavioral political economics, comparative political behavior, the political economy of development, and social policy research, focusing on the intersection of political science, economics, and psychology.

Sharad Chari

Associate Professor
Geography
Sharad Chari is Associate Professor of Geography and Co-Director of Critical Theory at UC Berkeley. He is an interdisciplinary geographer working on Marxist political economy, the global Black radical tradition, South India, South Africa, and the Southern African Indian Ocean. His publications include Gramsci at Sea (Minnesota, 2023), Apartheid Remains (Duke 2024) and he is working on a biography of queer struggle in South Africa in the 1990s.

Crystal Chang Cohen

Continuing Lecturer
Global Studies
Political Economy
Crystal Chang Cohen is a Continuing Lecturer in the Global Studies and Political Economy programs. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on Chinese and Indian politics, gender perspectives in Asia, theories of contemporary political economy and development, and Silicon Valley's innovation ecosystem.

Soo Sun You

Graduate Student
Political Science

Soo Sun You is pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on comparative politics and political behavior. Her research interests lie at the intersection of economic and political inequality and development and studies how political institutions affect levels of perceived economic inequality and political behavior in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Soo Sun worked as a Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) research fellow in Ethiopia, implementing and analyzing the impact of women’s empowerment programs. She also worked as...