Jennie Barker

Jennie Barker is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on international support for democratic governance, particularly the politics of democracy promotion in promoting and receiving states amid challenges to democracy in international politics. In her dissertation, she examines why some states continue to integrate support for democracy into their foreign policies while others do not in light of the intertwining developments of rising autocratic states, democratic backsliding, and concerns about the effectiveness of existing democracy promotion strategies. Drawing on newly collected data and case studies, she argues that states that gained security and status benefits under the international order where democratic values reigned supreme are more likely to support democracy abroad as the international order evolves. In other work, she focuses on how innovations from democracy promotion efforts in developing democratic states can affect confidence in democratic institutions in more developed democratic states such as the United States. Before beginning her Ph.D., Jennie was a research associate at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C., and a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Hamburg, Germany. She received her B.A. in political science and German studies at Tulane University.

Proposal Title: Standing up for Democracy? Democracy Promotion Under Emerging Multipolarity