About the Author Shanthi Kalathil is an international development consultant and author, focusing on the intersection among governance, development, and the public sphere. She is co-author of Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule (Carnegie Endowment, 2003), a widely cited work that examined the role of the Internet in promoting political transition in eight authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes. Kalathil has spent the past decade advising the U.S. government, international organizations, and civil society on the role of traditional and new media in supporting democracy and good governance. Previously a Senior Democracy Fellow and Media Advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development, she currently acts as a regular consultant for the Communication for Governance and Accountability Program at the World Bank and serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy. A former Hong Kong-based staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal Asia, Kalathil holds degrees from U.C. Berkeley and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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