Nicolas van de Walle (PhD Princeton University, 1990) is the Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government at Cornell University. His primary field within political science is comparative politics, and his research focuses on the political economy of development with a special focus on Africa, as well as on democratization and the politics of economic reform. Professor van de Walle has worked as a consultant for international and multilateral organizations including the World Bank, USAID, and UNDP. He is a former Director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies at Cornell. His two most recent books are Overcoming Stagnation in Aid-Dependent Economies (Center for Global Development, 2005); and African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979–1999 (Cambridge University Press, 2001).