Robert I. Rotberg (Born: April 11, 1935) is an American who served as President emeritus of the World Peace Foundation (1993–2010). An American professor in governance and foreign affairs, he was director of the Program on Intrastate Conflict, Conflict Prevention, and Conflict Resolution at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government (1999–2010), and has served in administrative positions at Tufts University and Lafayette College.
In 2003-2004, he served as a member of the Secretary of State's Advisory Panel on Africa, and was a Presidential appointee to the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2007 at the Kennedy School, he directed the establishment of the Index for African Governance, to help evaluate leaders for the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, awarded annually by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. A trustee of Oberlin College, Rotberg is a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.
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Rotberg earned his undergraduate degree at Oberlin College. He obtained his doctorate at St Antony's College, Oxford University while on a Rhodes Scholarship. He also did graduate studies at Princeton University.
His academic career in United States institutions has included Professor of Political Science and History, MIT; Academic Vice President of Tufts University; and President of Lafayette College. In 1970, he was a founding co-editor of the Journal of Interdisciplinary History and continues in that position.
Most recently Rotberg was director of the Program on Intrastate Conflict, Conflict Prevention, and Conflict Resolution (1999–2010) at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is President emeritus of the World Peace Foundation (1993–2010).[1]
He is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on US foreign policy, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, most recently:
Under the direction of Professor Rotberg and supported by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an Index of African Governance was created in 2007. It ranks all 48 sub-Saharan African countries according to quality of governance. In conjunction, Mo Ibrahim has created the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, a prize larger in monetary value than the Nobel Prize.
The results of the Index, which since 2009 has been compiled by African researchers and institutions, will help the Ibrahim Prize selection committee choose winners. The Prize will provide recognition, awards and pensions for “honest, capable African heads of state” after they leave office. Awards were made in 2007 and 2008.