Institute for Corean-American Studies



Carl Gershman
Biographic Sketch

Carl Gershman was appointed President of the National Endowment for Democracy by the Endowment's Board of Directors and assumed his position on April 30, 1984. In that capacity he has presided over the development of the Endowment's grants program in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Latin America. Under his leadership, the NED created the quarterly Journal of Democracy in 1990 and launched the International Forum for Democratic Studies in 1994. Mr. Gershman is currently encouraging other democracies to establish their own foundations devoted to the promotion of democratic institutions in the world.

Prior to assuming the position with the Endowment, Mr. Gershman was Senior Counselor to the United States Representative to the United Nations beginning in January 1981. In that capacity, he served as the U.S. Representative to the U.N.'s Third Committee, which deals with human rights issues, and also as Alternate Representative of the U.S. to the U.N. Security Council.

While at the U.S. Mission to the U.N., Mr. Gershman also served as lead consultant to the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, and helped draft the final report.

Prior to his assignment at the United States Mission to the United Nations, Mr. Gershman was a Resident Scholar at Freedom House (1980-81) and Executive Director of Social Democrats, USA (1974-80).

Mr. Gershman has lectured extensively and written articles and reviews on foreign policy issues for such publications as: Commentary , The New Leader, The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal , The American Spectator, The New York Times Magazine, Midstream, The Washington Quarterly and the Journal of Democracy . He is the co-editor of Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East (Bantam, 1972) and the author of The Foreign Policy of the American Labor (Sage, 1975). He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mr. Gershman was born in New York City on July 20, 1943. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Horace Mann Preparatory School in 1961; received a B.A. degree from Yale University, Magna Cum Laude in 1965 and M.Ed. from Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1968.

Mr. Gershman is married to Laurie Pfeffer. They have three children (Sarah, Joseph and Jacob).




ICAS Web Site Links for Carl Gershman:

Bulletin: September 4, 2002
Fall 2002 Symposium
Promoting Democracy in the Post-911 World: The Case of North Korea





This page last updated 11/25/2002 jdb



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