Education:

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University

Expertise:

International trade (WTO, FTAs); human rights; corruption and development; economic growth and human rights, global corporate social responsibility

Background:

Susan Ariel Aaronson is Associate Research Professor at The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. She also teaches in the School of Business, and is affiliated with the Institute for International Economic Policy, the Global Gender Program, and the Institute for Corporate Responsibility. She is also a Researcher with the World Trade Institute, directing a major study on the WTO and corruption. Her research is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and Ford Motor Company.

Dr. Aaronson is a frequent speaker on public understanding of globalization issues and regularly appears on VOA Issues and Opinions/China to discuss US and international economic developments. She was a regular commentator on "All Things Considered" in 1994-1995, "Marketplace" from 1995-1998, and "Morning Edition" from 1998-2001. She has also appeared on CNN, the BBC, and PBS to discuss trade and globalization issues. She has also been a Guest Scholar in Economics at the Brookings Institution (1995-1999).

Dr. Aaronson serves on the Advisory Board for Business-Human Rights and has been a pro-bono advisor to the UN Special Representative on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights, and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. In recent years, she has consulted for the ILO; the World Bank; Free the Slaves; the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative; the Stanley Foundation; several corporations; and the governments of Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands, among others.

Publications:

Dr. Aaronson is the author of six books and numerous articles on trade, human rights, public private partnerships; globalization, corporate social responsibility; and public understanding of economic change. Her books include:

• Trade Imbalance: The Struggle to Weigh Human Rights in Trade Policymaking (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• Taking Trade to the Streets: The Lost History of Public Efforts to Shape Globalization (University of Michigan Press, 2001)
• Trade and the American Dream: A Social History of Postwar Trade Policy (University Press of Kentucky, 1996)

Dr. Aaronson has also written two primers on trade — "Trade is Everybody's Business" for high school students and "Are there Trade Offs When Americans Trade?" for adults. These books relate trade to citizens' daily lives.

Her recent articles include:

• Trade and the Internet: The risks and challenges of this new technology , The International Economy, Winter 2012, 75–77.
• Unexpected Bedfellows: The GATT, the WTO and Some Democratic Rights,International Studies Quarterly, 55:2, 379–408, June 2011.
• Limited Partnership: The Public, Business, NGOs and Governments in the EITI, Public Administration and Development, 31:1, 50–63, February 2011.
• How China's Employment Problems Became Trade Problems: China, labor law and the Rule of Law, Global Economy Journal, 10:3 (2010).
• A Match Made in Heaven? The Union of Trade and Human Rights, Review Essay for Human Rights and Human Welfare March 2010.

Her current research includes:

• Is the WTO Good for Men and Women?
• Does the WTO help Governments Adopt Anticorruption Counterweights?
• The Spillovers of China's Inadequate Governance; and Business Human Rights Responsibilities in Conflict Zones.

Courses Taught:

Courses in Development:

Comparative US and EU Trade Policymaking