Larry Jay Diamond (born October 2, 1951) is an American political sociologist and leading contemporary scholar in the field of democracy studies. Diamond is a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, which is Stanford University's main center for research on international issues. At the Institute Diamond served as the director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law from 2009-2016. He was succeeded in that role by Francis Fukuyama and then Kathryn Stoner. Diamond has served as an advisor to numerous governmental and international organizations at various points in his life, including the United States Department of State, United Nations, World Bank, and U.S. Agency for International Development. He is a founding co-editor of the National Endowment for Democracy's Journal of Democracy, stepping down from that role in the autumn of 2022. He is also a coordinator of the Hoover Institution's Iran Democracy Project, along with Abbas Milani and Michael McFaul. Education Diamond obtained a B.A. degree in Political Organization and Behavior in 1974, an M.A. degree from the Food Research Institute in 1978, and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1980, all at Stanford University. Career Diamond was Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University (1980–1985). He was founding co-director of the National Endowment for Democracy's International Forum for Democratic Studies (1994–2009). Among the many governmental and nongovernmental agencies that he has advised, Diamond served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2002 to 2003. Diamond was named Stanford's "Teacher of the Year" in May 2007. At the June 2007 commencement ceremonies he was awarded the Dinkelspiel Award for Distinctive Contributions to Undergraduate Education. Among the many reasons for Diamond to receive this award it was cited that he fostered dialogue between Jewish and Muslim students. He was the dissertation adviser for Regina Ip, former Secretary for Security of Hong Kong during her years at Stanford. In 2022, Diamond joined Yermak-McFaul Expert Group on Russian Sanctions as an expert to work on elaborating and imposing western sanctions against Russia which invaded Ukraine. Post–2003 Iraq In early 2004, Diamond was a senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. His book Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, published in 2005, was one of the first public critical analyses of America's post-invasion of Iraq strategy. Views on democracy Despite the