GROS, Jean-Germain 1964-

PERSONAL: Born May 6, 1964, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Ethnicity: "Black." Education: University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D., 1993. Politics: "Socialist/Progressive." Religion: "Agnostic."

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Political Science, University of Missouri at St. Louis, 1 University Blvd., Louis, MO 63121-4400. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Missouri at St. Louis, St. Louis, associate professor of political science, 1994–. Consultant to United Nations, U.S. Institute of Peace, European Union, and World Health Organization.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Democratization in Late-Twentieth-Century Africa: Coping with Uncertainty, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1998.

(Editor) Cameroon: Politics and Society in Critical Perspectives, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 2003.

When Rhetoric Meets Reality: World Bank Lending in Developing Countries, 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including British Journal of Criminology.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Research on the state and underdevelopment in Haiti.

SIDELIGHTS: Jean-Germain Gros told CA: "I write because I have points to make. I find much academic writing limited in terms of the intended audience. Essentially, U.S. academics write for each other, or more accurately, try to outdo each other in terms of the difficulties of their prose. In my writing I try to strike a balance between academic-speak and real writing. Thus, all my works may be understood by colleagues and so-called novices.

"I am interested in states: how they relate to one another, and what causes them to fail or succeed. I am inspired by the fact that I come from a 'failed state' (Haiti) and my intellectual interests and roots are in Black Africa, where, unfortunately, many failed states exist. My works are influenced by many people—not least my former professors—but I have been particularly impressed by the works of Jean-François Bayart on Africa's failed states. Recently I have found Robert Fulton's Haiti's Predatory State interesting."