Francis Fukuyama, famed academic and author of the epoch-defining article “The End of History,” will become a professor at Stanford in July 2010. He will take over as the head of be a fellow at the Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law and will hold an appointment at the Freeman Spogli Institute.
This is a major coup for Stanford’s international relations street cred. Fukuyama will replace Mike McFaul, who has moved on to service in the Obama administration until at least 2012, if not longer. Attracting a big name like Fukuyama, particularly away from Johns Hopkin’s SAIS, will help put CDDRL and FSI on the map even more than it already is.