About the Author

Seth D. Kaplan
Managing Partner
Alpha International Consulting

Seth D. Kaplan is a well-known writer, policy analyst and consultant on state building and development.

His book Fixing Fragile States: A New Paradigm for Development (Praeger Security International, 2008) has been read widely by policymakers and academics from Brussels to Beijing. He is currently the Director of State Building Initiatives for the Kiel Institute's Global Economic Symposium, Chairman of the Israel Asia Center in Jerusalem, and Managing Partner of Alpha International Consulting.

In addition to his book on fragile states, Mr. Kaplan has published widely on development issues. His articles have appeared in newspapers and journals such as the Washington Quarterly, Orbis, Harvard International Review, Policy Review, Journal of Democracy, Middle East Policy, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Jerusalem Post, Review of Faith & International Affairs, Development, The Broker, Modern Age, and China Business Review.

As a consultant, Mr. Kaplan has worked with foreign policy specialists and government officials in a number of countries to formulate aid strategies and foster development in fragile states. He played a major role in shaping the 2009 European Report on Development and the Canadian International Development Agency's strategy in fragile states. In addition, he has helped prepare policy frameworks in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and in other member nations of the European Union. Mr. Kaplan has also lectured on state building and development at conferences and universities around the globe, including: the Global Economic Symposium (GES) in Kiel and Istanbul, the Society for International Development in Amsterdam and New York City, the World Bank in Washington, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, the Overseas Development Institute in London, Clingendael in The Hague, the Aga Khan Foundation in Ottawa, the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, and the University of Oxford.

A Wharton MBA and Palmer scholar, Mr. Kaplan has worked for several large multinationals, including Procter & Gamble, Compaq Computers and Komatsu. At Compaq, he managed the firm's communications products division in Asia. During seven years in Shanghai, he founded four companies. As CEO of the largest of these, China College Management, Inc., he developed a chain of proprietary universities in east China. His consulting clients have included both multinational companies as well as small entrepreneurial firms.

Mr. Kaplan has traveled extensively doing research in over 60 countries. He has lived and worked in Nigeria, China, Turkey, Japan, Taiwan, Israel, France, and the United States, and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and Japanese.