Dr. Sophal Ear

Status Assistant Professor Contact sear@nps.edu Research Interests Political Economy of Aid, Governance, Growth, and Development; Southeast Asia; Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Democratization (particularly Cambodia); Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (Bird Flu); Effective Surveillance of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Biography
Sophal Ear, Ph.D. joined the Department of National Security Affairs as an Assistant Professor in June 2007. He was selected as a TED2009 Fellow for the 25th Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference, now held in Long Beach, California, and spoke at the Oslo Freedom Forum 2010.

Prior to joining NPS, Prof. Ear was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in 2006-07, specializing in policy and administration in developing countries. He has a decade’s experience in development consulting in post-conflict countries and specializes on Southeast Asia. His research has covered such varied topics as social protection, governance, and the livestock sector as it relates to Bird Flu. He is working on the institutional arrangements needed to improve effective surveillance of emerging infectious diseases before they jump from animals to humans which has taken him to Cambodia, Indonesia, and Mexico. In 2002-03, he was in charge of Democratic Governance as an Assistant Resident Representative for the United Nations Development Programme in East Timor, and prior to that consulted for the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank on the Middle East and North Africa (Algeria, and West Bank and Gaza).

Prof. Ear received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006, and has three master’s degrees: a Master of Science in Agricultural and Resource Economics, a Master of Arts in Political Science (both from U.C. Berkeley) and a Master in Public Affairs in Economics and Public Policy from Princeton University. He has traveled extensively in Southeast Asia, living in the region for several years. He speaks French, Khmer, Vietnamese, and Spanish. He moved to the United States from France as a Cambodian refugee at the age of 10.

His recent research includes: “Livelihoods and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Cambodia” (with Sigfrido Burgos, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), World’s Poultry Science Journal 65(4), December 2009, 633-640; “Sowing and Sewing Growth: The Political Economy of Rice and Garments in Cambodia”, SCID Working Paper 384, Stanford Center for International Development, April 2009; “Cambodia’s Victim Zero: Global and National Responses to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza”, STEPS Working Paper 16, STEPS Centre, Brighton; “Does Aid Dependence Worsen Governance?” in International Public Management Journal (September 2007), winner of the International Public Management Network’s June Pallot Award in 2008 for the best article published in IPMJ in 2007; and “The Political Economy of Aid and Governance in Cambodia” in Asian Journal of Political Science (April 2007). He has also contributed to several encyclopedias: World Terrorism 1996-2002 (M.E. Sharpe, 2003); World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia (ABC Clio, 2006); and World History Encyclopedia (ABC Clio, 2009). He is currently working on two books: (1) Aid Dependence: The Alliance of Donors, Government, and the Development Industry in Cambodia and (2) a history of Western academic supporters of the Khmer Rouge during their reign of terror.

Additional information may be found on his faculty web page by clicking here.

Recent Publications

• “The Political Economy of Cambodia’s Growth: Rice and Garments,” in Caroline Hughes and Kheang Un, eds., Cambodia’s Economic Transformation (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, forthcoming 2011).
• “Trade and Commerce in Southeast Asia” with Pierre van der Eng, Australia National University, in Jim Overfield, ed., World History Encyclopedia, ABC-Clio, forthcoming July 2010.
• “Education in Colonial Southeast Asia” with Christine Inglis, in Jim Overfield, ed., World History Encyclopedia, ABC-Clio, forthcoming July 2010.
• “Towards effective emerging infectious diseases surveillance in Cambodia and Indonesia”, Poster Presentation Abstract, International Journal of Infectious Diseases, forthcoming August 2010.
• “China’s Strategic Interests in Cambodia: Influence and Resources” with Sigfrido Burgos, Asian Survey 50, No. 3, June 2010.
• “Does Patronage Still Drive Politics for the Rural Poor in the Developing World? A Comparative Perspective from the Livestock Sector” with David K. Leonard, Jennifer Brass, Michael Nelson, Dan Fahey, Tasha Fairfield, Martha Johnson Gning, Michael Halderman, Brendan McSherry, Devra Coren Moehler, Wilson Prichard, Robin Turner, Tuong Vu, and Jeroen Dijkman, Development and Change, 40(3), May 2010.
• “Chapter 3: Cambodia’s Patient Zero: Global and National: Responses to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza,” in Ian Scoones, ed., Avian Influenza: Science, Policy and Politics, Earthscan, April 2010.
• “Karma,” in Kyra Gaunt, ed., The Audacity of Humanity, 2 April 2010.
• “Khmer Rouge Tribunal vs. Karmic Justice,” New York Times (Global Edition), 17 March 2010. (Reprinted in the International Herald Tribune, 18 March, 2010, and as “Cambodians Will Have to Wait for Karmic Justice for KR Leaders,” The Cambodia Daily, 19 March 2010.)
• “Chomsky and the Khmer Rouge,” Letters, The Observer, 7 February 2010.
• “Yuon and Vietnamese: What’s in a Xenonym?” with Kenneth T. So, Talawas, Fall 2009. (Reprinted as “Yuon: What’s in a xenonym?” The Phnom Penh Post, 8 February 2010, and “Yuon và người Việt: điều gì trong một chữ ngoại?” ( “Yuon: What’s in a xenonym?”), Koh Santepheap Daily, 2 April 2010 and 3 April 2010).
• “Livelihoods and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Cambodia” with Sigfrido Burgos, World’s Poultry Science Journal 65, No. 4, December 2009, 633-640.
• “Transitional Justice Dilemma: The Case of Cambodia” with Virorth Doung, Peace and Conflict Review 4, Issue 1, Fall 2009, 18-36.
• “Eulogy for a Cambodian Grandma: A Letter to Cam Youk Lim’s Grandchildren,” The Cambodia Daily WEEKEND, Issue 615, 26-27 December 2009, 8-9.
• “Cambodian ‘Justice’,” The Wall Street Journal (Asia Edition), 1 September 2009, 13. (Reprinted as “Integrity of Khmer Rouge Tribunal Called Into Question,” The Cambodia Daily, 2 September 2009.)
• “Cambodia’s Patient Zero: The Political Economy of Foreign Aid and Avian Influenza,” SCID Working Paper 398, Stanford, CA: Stanford Center for International Development, September 2009.
• “Book Review: Dependent Communities: Aid and Politics in Cambodia and East Timor (Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 2009) by Caroline Hughes,” Contemporary Southeast Asia 31, Number 2, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, August 2009.
• “The Political Economy of Aid and Regime Legitimacy in Cambodia,” in Joakim Ojendal and Mona Lilja, eds., Beyond Democracy in Cambodia: Political Reconstruction in a Post-Conflict Society, Series: Democracy in Asia | Volume 12, Copenhagen: NIAS Press, July 2009.
• “The Political Economy of Aid and Regime Legitimacy in Cambodia,” in Joakim Ojendal and Mona Lilja, eds., Beyond Democracy in Cambodia Political Reconstruction in a Post-Conflict Society (NIAS Press, Democracy in Asia Series, Vol. 12, June 2009).
• “Sowing and Sewing Growth: The Political Economy of Rice and Garments in Cambodia,” SCID Working Paper 384, Stanford, CA: Stanford Center for International Development, April 2009.
• “Cambodia: The Wild East” with Jim Walker, Asianomics 1, 19 February 2009.
• “Cambodia,” in Ian Storey and Lee Poh Onn, eds., Regional Outlook: Southeast Asia 2009-2010 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), January 2009).
• “Cambodia’s Victim Zero: Global and National Responses to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza,” STEPS Working Paper 16 (Brighton: STEPS Centre (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex), 2009).
• “Op-Ed: Managing Democracy: Cambodia’s Free Press Under Fire” with John Hall, Chapman University Law School, International Herald Tribune, and reprinted as “Opinion: A Free Press in Cambodia Now More Critical Than Ever” in The Cambodia Daily, July 28, 2008.
• “Does Aid Dependence Worsen Governance?” International Public Management Journal (September 2007).
• “Special Issue on Southeast Asian American Demographics: Response-Public Policy/Political Science,” Journal of Southeast Asian American Education & Advancement 3 (June 2008): 58-61.
• “The Political Economy of Aid and Governance in Cambodia,” Asian Journal of Political Science (April 2007).
• “The Political Economy of Aid and Regime Legitimacy in Cambodia” in Öjendal and Lilja, eds., In Search of Political Legitimacy in Cambodia: Reconstruction in a Post-Conflict Society (Copenhagen: NIAS Press (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies), 2008).