John Dempsey

Dempsey joined USIP as a senior rule of law adviser in December 2007 and established USIP’s office in Kabul, where he has lived since January 2003. He oversees the Institute’s rule of law activities in Afghanistan. He also advised the U.S. Government on its new Rule of Law Strategy for Afghanistan in 2009. 

Before USIP, Dempsey was an adviser to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Justice under USAID’s Afghanistan Rule of Law Program (2005–2007), working to reform the country’s legal system, and was an adviser to Afghanistan’s Judicial Reform Commission under USAID's Afghanistan Legal Reform Project (2004-5).  Prior to that, he spent a year and a half working as the property law expert with the International Rescue Committee in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province. In this role, Dempsey assessed and addressed land and housing concerns that returning refugees face and advised Afghanistan’s Constitutional Review Commission on property law matters. Concurrently, Dempsey was the Kabul representative of the American Bar Association’s Afghanistan Transitional Commercial Law Project. 

Dempsey was an attorney with Linklaters LLP in New York from 2000 to 2003 and was a United Nations Association Fellow with the World Bank, prior to which he taught English at a university in Chiang Rai, Thailand, where he lived for two years.  Dempsey has appeared as an expert commentator in/on NPR, CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the LA Times, among others.  He received his J.D. and his M.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University and his B.A. in history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Publications:

• "Reforming Afghanistan's Justice Sector," in Deconstructing the Afghan Security Sector, edited by Eden Cole, et al (Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces, forthcoming).
• "Discussion Paper: Afghanistan's Legislative Process," presented at Afghanistan Justice Sector Donors' Conference (July 2007).
• Protecting Property Rights in Afghanistan: A Guide for Practitioners, contributor (UNHCR, June 2005).
• "Afghanistan's Legislative Process: The Role of the Ministry of Justice Legislative Drafting Unit," USAID?s Afghanistan Governance and Legal Reform Project (March 2005).
• "Strengthening U.S.-Indonesian Strategic Relations," National Strategy Forum Review (Spring 2005).
• "Rethinking United States' Policy in Afghanistan," National Strategy Forum Review (Winter 2003).
• "Suggested Chapter on Land Rights for Afghanistan's Constitution,"International Rescue Committee (August 2003?also presented to Afghanistan's Constitutional Review Commission).
• "Terrorism and the Asian View of America: Why Human Rights and Economics Matter," National Strategy Forum Review (Summer 2003).
• "Privatization in Thailand after the 1997 Economic Crisis," Journal of Law and Policy in International Business (Georgetown University Law Center, Winter 2000).
• "Democracy in Thailand: Political Culture as Obstacle," The Georgetown Compass (Spring 1998).