Daniel Chirot is the Herbert J. Ellison Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Washington's Henry M. Jackson School. He has done research in and written about East-Central Europe, West Africa, and Southeast Asia. His most recent books are a co authored work entitled The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How They Made the Modern World (Princeton University Press, 2015) and a coedited work called Confronting Memories of World War II: Recriminations and Reconciliations in Europe and Asia (University of Washington Press, 2014). His previous books have been about social change, Eastern Europe, tyranny, and ethno-nationalist conflicts. He received a John Simon Gugenheim Fellowship, a United States Institute of Peace Senior Fellowship, and grants from other organizations to conduct his research, and has also done consulting work in West Africa and Eastern Europe. He has a BA from Harvard and a PhD from Columbia.