Fernando Henrique Cardoso was president of Brazil from 1995 to 2003. Currently, he is president of Instituto Fernando Henrique Cardoso, which promotes debate on democracy and development. Cardoso is a founding member of the Inter-American Dialogue and chair emeritus of the Board of Directors. A sociologist trained at the University of São Paulo, Cardoso emerged since the late 1960s as one of the most influential intellectuals in Latin America. He was deeply involved in Brazil’s struggle for democracy to overcome the authoritarian military regime.
Elected senator in 1982, Cardoso was a founding member of the Party of the Social Democracy (PSDB). He served as minister of foreign relations from 1992 to 1993 and as and minister of finance from 1993 to 1994. In addition to the University of São Paulo, of which he is emeritus professor, Cardoso has taught at the University of Santiago, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Cambridge, the University of Paris-Nanterre, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and the Collège de France. From 2003 to 2007, he was professor at-large at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Cardoso’s many published books include: A arte da política: a história que vivi (2006); O presidente segundo o sociólogo (1998); O mundo em português (1998); A construção da democracia (1993); Dependência e desenvolvimento na América Latina, with Enzo Faletto (1969, relaunched in 2004); and Capitalismo e escravidão no Brasil meridional: o negro na sociedade escravocrata do Rio Grande do Sul (1962, relaunched in 2003). His most recent publication is The Accidental President of Brazil (2006).
Cardoso is co-president of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy; president of the Independent Commission on Aids and the Law; a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the Council of Global Leaders for Public Health, and the Clinton Global Initiative; and a board director of the Club of Madrid, the World Resources Institute, and the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.
Cardoso is an Emeritus Member of the Dialogue and Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors.