معرفی
Brett Carter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California and a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is also a faculty affiliate at Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and was previously a CDDRL Visiting Scholar (2020-2021).
He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University, where he was a fellow at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. His academic journey includes previous fellowships at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies and Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.
Carter's research focuses on politics in the world's autocracies, with particular expertise in Chinese and African authoritarian regimes. His work examines how autocratic governments maintain power through propaganda, digital repression, and strategic responses to international pressure. He has developed innovative methodological approaches to study sensitive political topics in closed societies, including experimental designs to measure public opinion in China. His research bridges comparative politics, international relations, and methodology, with a focus on understanding the evolving tactics of authoritarian governance in the 21st century. Carter's recent publications analyze China's export of surveillance technology, the concealment of political opposition in authoritarian contexts, and the survival strategies of African autocrats in the post-Cold War era.
Carter's scholarly contributions have been recognized with several prestigious awards. His book Propaganda in Autocracies received the International Journal of Press/Politics Hazel Gaudet-Erskine Best Book Award. The work also earned Honorable Mention for the Luebbert Award for the Best Book in Comparative Politics and Honorable Mention for the APSA Democracy & Autocracy Section's Best Book Award. These accolades reflect the significant impact of his research on understanding authoritarian information control and propaganda strategies.
His research has been generously supported by major funding organizations including the National Science Foundation, United States Institute of Peace, Social Science Research Council, Guggenheim Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Center for International Studies at USC, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. These grants have enabled extensive field research and methodological innovation in studying autocratic politics.
Carter is actively engaged with policy communities and public discourse. He contributes to the National Endowment for Democracy's Power 3.0 project, African Arguments, and Africa is a Country. His research has been featured in major media outlets including The New York Times and NPR's Radio Lab, demonstrating the real-world relevance of his scholarly work on authoritarianism and democratic resilience. He is also an occasional contributor to Political Violence at a Glance and maintains an active scholarly presence through his work with academic journals such as the Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Democracy.
