Education:

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University

Expertise:

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

Current Research:

• Will Trade Agreements Free Information and Individuals?
• The Paradox of the WTO: Can the Trade System Advance Good Governance and Human Rights?
• Apps and New Ideas to Reduce Corruption

Background:

Susan Ariel Aaronson is Associate Research Professor at The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs and the Minerva Research Fellow Faculty Chair (Minerva Chair) at the National War College.

Aaronson is currently directing a project examining how the U.S., EU, and Canada use trade agreements to govern the Internet and to advance Internet freedom/stability. Her research is funded by MacArthur Foundation. While at GWU, Aaronson has also received recent grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation and Ford Motor Company for her work on corruption and business and human rights.

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 is a Senior External Advisor to the Business and Society Team of Oxford Analytica. In recent years, she has been a pro-bono advisor to the UN Special Representative on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights, and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. She has also 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.

Courses Taught:

Courses in Development:

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