David R. Mares is the Baker Institute Scholar for Energy Studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University and professor of political science and adjunct professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Mares was previously profesor-investigador at El Colegio de México (1980-82), Fulbright Professor at the Universidad de Chile (1990) and visiting professor at the Diplomatic Academy in Ecuador (1995). He has been a visiting scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University; a fellow at the Japan External Trade Research Organization (JETRO); a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Stanford University; and held a Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs. His research and teaching interests include Latin American energy politics, the political economy of drug policy, defense policy, civil–military relations and the use of photographic imagery in politics.

Mares’ books include “Penetrating the International Market: Theoretical Considerations and a Mexican Case”; “Violent Peace: Militarized Interstate Bargaining in Latin America”; “Latinoamérica: ¿existe?”; “Chile–United States Relations” (with Francisco Rojas); and he edited “Civil–Military Relations: Building Democracy and Regional Security in Latin America, Southern Asia and Central Europe.” He has also published articles in numerous journals in the Americas and Europe. Mares is editor of the series “Latin America: Social Sciences and the Law” (Routledge Press) and was a member of the international advisory board of the Instituto Latinoamericano de Relaciones Civiles–Militares (Peru), as well as of the editorial board of Latin American Research Review. He has prepared reports for the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress (Costa Rica), Centro Paraguayo para la Promoción de la Libertad Económica y de la Justicia Social (Paraguay), Netherlands Institute of International Relations (The Hague), and the Conflict Prevention Network (Berlin). He is an associate fellow of the Inter-American Dialogue (Washington, D.C.), a fellow of the academic forum of the Summit of the Americas (Montreal, Canada), and a member of the Tri-national Academic Group on Governance in North America (Monterrey, Mexico). Mares has been interviewed in the printed press, radio and television throughout the Americas and in Europe. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1982.