About Us

The Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies (WCED) combines academics with practical applications. The Center promotes scholarship to better understand the conditions and policies facilitating historical, contemporary, and prospective transformations from authoritarian rule to democracies with more robust economies and vital civil societies. It also educates new generations of practitioners who can apply their learning and experience to help extend freedom. Initially focusing on transitions in Europe and Eurasia, it will subsequently expand its scope to other emerging democracies across the globe.

Housed in the International Institute at the University of Michigan, the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies began operation in September 2008. Named in honor of Ronald and Eileen Weiser and inspired by their time in Slovakia during Ambassador Weiser’s service as U.S. Ambassador from 2001-04, WCED will expand scholarship on democracy’s extension for the public good.

WCED, the Center for European Studies-European Union Center, and the Center for Russian and East European Studies work in association with the Ronald and Eileen Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia, an organization dedicated to enhancing interdisciplinary knowledge about, and public engagement with, the institutions, cultures, and histories of these regions.

WCED History

Michael D. Kennedy, founding WCEE/WCED Director (2008-09)