Geoffrey Macdonald

Geoffrey Macdonald is a political scientist and development practitioner. He is the Senior Advisor for the Asia-Pacific Division at the International Republican Institute (IRI) and a Visiting Expert in the South Asia Program at the United States Institute of Peace. From 2018-2022, Dr. Macdonald was IRI’s Bangladesh Country Director, overseeing the design, implementation, evaluation, and financial management of U.S. government-funded programs on civil society capacity building, youth civic education, minority rights, political party strengthening, and countering violent extremism. He lived in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 2019 to 2021. Dr. Macdonald’s academic research focuses on political and extremist violence, democratic design, conflict management, and comparative politics with a regional focus on Bangladesh/South Asia. His writing has been published by the Journal of Democracy, the U.S. Institute of Peace, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, the Council on Foreign Relations, and various other academic and policy outlets. He holds a Ph.D. (2013) from the University of Denver and has taught political science at George Washington University, Grinnell College, and other institutions.