John M. Richardson

Who is John M. Richardson?

John M. Richardson, Jr. is an American academic who currently serves as Professor of International Development.

Dr. Richardson received his AB degree from Dartmouth College and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Prior to appointment at American University, Dr. Richardson held faculty appointments in political science and systems engineering at Case Western Reserve University.

He was a pioneer in the fields of global modeling and system dynamics under the auspices of the Club of Rome, with work focusing on sustainability and population-resource-environment interrelationships. In 1982 he was named by the Society for Computer Simulation as "one of the twenty most effective decision makers in the world". Dr. Richardson remains an ongoing contributor to the Hungary-based Balaton Group and in the mid-1980s he collaborated with the late Donella Meadows as systems advocates for the Hunger Project.

Dr. Richardson's more recent writing, teaching and consulting apply system dynamics principles to the nexus of civil conflict, terrorism and development policy. As a scholar and author, he has been visiting and working in Sri Lanka since 1987, using the island's turbulent political-economic history as a lens to analyze broader international development and conflict dilemmas. Paradise Poisoned, his most recent book, culminates nearly twenty years of work in this arena.