Allison Stanger


Allison Katherine Stanger is a political scientist and the Russell J. Leng '60 Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College, Vermont and the founding director of Middlebury's Rohatyn Center for International Affairs. Stanger has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 2004, and since October 2009 she has worked as a part-time consultant to the United States Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff.

Education

Stanger graduated in 1982 with a B.S. in Actuarial Science/Mathematics from Ball State University. In 1983, she obtained a graduate diploma in Economics from the London School of Economics. In 1986, she won the Merle Fainsod Prize for academic promise. In 1988, she earned an A.M. in Soviet Union Regional Studies from Harvard University where she completed her Ph.D in Political Science in 1991.

Career

Stanger began her career as a risk management analyst with The Equitable Life Assurance Society from 1983 to 1984. Her first academic appointment was as an assistant professor of political science at Middlebury College in 1991. Stanger was the recipient of several research fellowships and grants between 1991 and 1995, focusing on Eastern European languages and foreign policy studies. From 1995 to 1996, she was a visiting scholar at Prague's Charles University. She has held a succession of academic positions in political economy, geopolitics and international affairs at Middlebury, including chairman of the Department of Political Science from 2009 to 2012.
Stanger was the director of Middlebury College's Geonomics Center for International Studies from 1999-2002. She was the founding director of the Geonomics Center's successor, the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, from its inception in 1999 until her resignation in July 2012.
Stanger's current research focuses on the relationship between technology, the law, and politics. She is a faculty member at Middlebury College, teaching undergraduate courses such as "Politics of Virtual Realities" and "American Foreign Policy". Stanger is also a Cybersecurity Fellow with the New America Foundation.

Publications and media

Stanger wrote Irreconcilable Differences? Explaining Czechoslovakia's Dissolution in 2000.
In her book, One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy, published in 2009, Stanger argues that poor oversight of U.S. government contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq has squandered American resources, exacerbating domestic unemployment and deficit problems. Stanger has published op-eds about hidden costs due to outsourcing U.S. diplomacy and economic development in the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. In 2010, she testified before the Commission on Wartime Contracting, the Senate Budget Committee, and the Congressional Oversight Panel.
Stanger is writing two new books, titled Consumers Versus Citizens: How the Internet Revolution is Remaking Global Security and Democracy's Public Square and Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Leaks: The Story of Whistleblowing in America.

Confrontation at Middlebury College

On March 2, 2017, Stanger accompanied political scientist Charles Murray as his academic escort to a Middlebury College speaking engagement on campus at Wilson Hall. Stanger was injured outside the McCullough Student Center during a confrontation with protesters attempting to obstruct and damage the vehicle she and guest speaker Murray were riding in as they left the campus. Stanger was diagnosed with a concussion as a result of the assault. The next day, Middlebury College President Laurie L. Patton confirmed that the protesters' behavior " was in clear violation of Middlebury College policy".
Some Middlebury students challenged the published accounts of the attack on the Middlebury student blog, Middbeat, asserting that Middlebury staff had instigated the violence by pushing protesters. Some students felt that by refusing to allow Murray to speak, and by injuring Stanger, the Middlebury College student community "trod all over the ideas of free speech this country was founded upon".
Patton later issued a statement, saying the school would conduct an investigation into the sequence of events and then determine what actions to take for those individuals who were involved. Patton also said that the Middlebury Police Department would investigate the violent confrontation outside McCullough.

Personal life

Stanger is married to Michael Kraus, Professor of Political Science at Middlebury, and has two children. She is fluent in the Czech and French languages. Stanger was a Delegate from New York at the Democratic National Convention in 1984.

Books