Faculty Profile - Mark Baskin Ph.D.

Mark A. Baskin, Ph.D brings long experience in academia, peace operation, and international development. s an experienced field practitioner in conflict and post-conflict administration, peace operations, rule of law, legislative strengthening, and local government and administration. He spent nearly a decade as a Civil Affairs Officer working for United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, both in the field and at mission headquarters in Zagreb, Vukovar, and Sarajevo. In addition to leading negotiations on the ground in Gorazde in Spring 1994, he served as Chief Reporting Officer of the UN Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1997-1999), Deputy Regional Administrator in Prizren, Kosovo, and as Prizren’s Municipal Administrator in (1999-2000).

He directed development projects in Eurasia, and the middle east. As Senior Associate at SUNY CID (State University of New York Center for International Development), he managed and contributed to democratization and development programs in Iraq, Jordan, Serbia, and Afghanistan, Africa, the South Pacific and southeast Asia. He has consulted for the United Nations, the World Bank, the Government of Canada, USAID, IDEA, the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, for whom he is currently completing a “Handbook on Constituency Development Funds: a Practical Tool Box for parliamentary stakeholders.”

Dr. Baskin was Director of Research at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Canada, and has taught at universities in Michigan, North Carolina and New York. As Research Professor in the political science department at Rockefeller College at the University at Albany, Dr. Baskin taught undergraduate and graduate courses in comparative and international politics, mentored BA and MA students in capstone projects, and served on doctoral committees.

Dr. Baskin has completed academic research on policy making, parliamentary development, ethnicity and nationalism, and post-conflict state building. He has held numerous fellowships, including as Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. (2003-2004) and held a U.S. State Department Title VIII Policy Connect Fellowship (2007-2008), that explored international participation in domestic policy-making. He is fluent in Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, and Russian. Dr. Baskin holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Michigan.

Selected publications​​​​​​

2019 Principles and Practice of Public Policy in Kosovo eds. Baskin, Mark and Bislimi, Faton (USAID/RIT-Kosovo https://kosovo.rit.edu/training/usaid-tlp-immersion-and-public-service-…

2019 “General Introduction to Public Policy in Kosovo,” Principles and Practice of Public Policy in Kosovo eds. Baskin, Mark and Bislimi, Faton (USAID/RIT-Kosovo), pp. 13-57.

2018, “Unpacking Russia’s Balkan Baggage,” Threats and Challenges to Kosovo’s Sovereignty, eds. David Philips and Lulzim Peci, KIPRED/Columbia University Center for Human Rights

“Former Yugoslavia and its Successors,” Democracy, the Market and Back to Europe: Post-Communist Europe 4rd Edition. (co-authored with Paula Pickering) eds. Sharon L. Wolchik and Jane L. Curry, (Rowan and Littlefield, 2018).

(with Michael Mezey), eds, Distributive Politics in Developing Countries: Not Quite Pork (Lexington Books, 2014) http://www.amazon.com/Distributive-Politics-Developing-Countries-Almost…

Introduction: “Are Constituency Development Funds a Policy Tool?” Distributive Politics in Developing Countries: Not Quite Pork, eds, Mark Baskin and Michael Mezey (Lexington Books, 2014), pp. 1-26.

“The Complexity of Contemporary Parliamentary Representation,” Nigerian Journal of Legislative Affairs, vol. 5, no. 2 (July-December, 2013), ppl 55-71.

“Just the Facts: Research in the Legislative Process,” Nigerian Journal of Legislative Affairs, vol. 5, no. 2 (July-December, 2013), pp. 139-153.

“The Growth of Constituency Development Funds in Africa and Beyond: Institutionalized Rent-Extraction or Constituency-Specific Development Assistance?” African Parliamentary Reform (co-authored with Rasheed Draman), eds Fredereick Stapenhurst, Rasheed Draman, Andrew Imlach, Alexander Hamilton and Cindy Kroon, Routledge, 2013.

"What Is To Be Done: Succession from the League of Communists of Croatia,” Communist and Post-Communist Studies, vol. 41 (2008), pp. 521-540. (co-authored with Paula Pickering)

“Interim Notions of Statehood in Bosnia: a Permanent Transition?” Interim Governments: Institutional Bridges to Peace and Democracy? eds. Karen Guttieri and Jessica Piombo, Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press (2007), pp. 257-280.

“Between Exit and Engagement: On the Division of Authority in Transitional Administrations,” Global Governance, vol. 10 (2004), pp. 119-137.

“Developing Local Democracy in Kosovo,” Stockholm: International IDEA (2005)

"Bulgaria: From Critique to Civil Society?" Ray Taras, ed., The Road to Disillusion: From Critical Marxism to Post-Communism (M.E. Sharpe), pp. 151-173. 1992