William AscherWilliam Ascher is Donald C. McKenna Professor of Government and Economics at Claremont McKenna College in California. He is a former director of the Center for International Development at Duke University, where he oversaw the training and research o many mid-career fellows from Southeast Asia as well as other developing regions. Under the auspices of the World Bank and the US Agency for International Development, he conducted research on Indonesia and Vietnam; he led an initiative to establish a new university in Thailand; and has lectured in Thailand and Indonesia. He has authored fourteen books, including The Psychology of Poverty Alleviation: Challenges in Developing Countries (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Understanding the Policymaking Process in Developing Countries (Cambridge University Press, 2017). His commitment to interdisciplinary comparative public policy has led to publications in journals on health, conservation, energy, conflict, poverty alleviation, migration, and agriculture, focusing on Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the region of Southeast Asia in general. Read More Read Less