Shanthi Kalathil

Shanthi Kalathil is an international development consultant and author. She focuses on the intersection between development, democracy and international security, with a particular emphasis on issues of voice and accountability. Kalathil 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 policy and practical aspects of support for traditional and new media as a function of good governance. Previously a Senior Democracy Fellow and Senior 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 consults for a variety of other organizations on development and security issues. 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.