Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a Senior Research Associate for the Center, specializing in Latin American security and economic development issues. Before coming to CITS, he worked as a Project Manager for the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies under the direction of Dr. William Potter. He received his M.A. in International Policy Studies (1993) at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from The University of Georgia (1998).
Dr. Benjamin-Alvarado is currently conducting research on Cuba’s efforts to develop sustainable energy development policy for the 21st century and broader infrastructure and economic development issues. Since 1992, he has visited Cuba more than a dozen times for field research on the energy development, conducting interviews with a number of senior government officials in Cuba’s energy, economic planning, and related agencies. He has published articles, monographs and commentaries on this subject in both Spanish and English in newspapers, scholarly and policy journals including The Nonproliferation Review, the Christian Science Monitor and Cuba in Transition. Dr. Benjamin-Alvarado presently serves as a consultant to research and policy institutions on theintersection between infra-structural development, public policy and good governance in Latin America and the Caribbean. He is the author of Power to the People: The Cuban Nuclear Energy Program (Routledge, 2000) and Cuba's Energy Strategy: Economic Considerations, Technological Choices and Sustainability (University Press of Florida, forthcoming 2003).