Lincoln Mitchell is the Arnold A. Saltzman Assistant Professor in the Practice of International Politics at Columia University. Before joining Columbia’s faculty, Lincoln was a practitioner of political development and continues to work in that field now. In addition to serving as Chief of Party for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Georgia from 2002-2004, Lincoln has worked on political development issues in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Lincoln also worked for years as a political consultant in New York City advising and managing domestic political campaigns.

Dr. Mitchell’s current research includes work on democratic transitions in the former Soviet Union, the role of democracy promotion in American foreign policy and on public opinion in the Muslim World. His book Uncertain Democracy: US Foreign Policy and Georgia’s Rose Revolution was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2008. He has also written articles on these topics in The National Interest, Orbis, The Moscow Times, the Washington Quarterly, The American Interest, Survival, The New York Daily News and Current History as well as for numerous online publications including the online sections of The Washington Post and the New York Times and Transitions Online.

Lincoln has been quoted extensively in most major American, Georgian and Russian newspapers and appeared on numerous television and radio programs discussing the conflict between Georgia and Russia in the US including All Things Considered, Lou Dobbs, the Jim Lehrer Newshour, ABC Nightline, the Diane Rehm Show, The BBC as well as in Russian and Georgian television. Lincoln is also a frequent blogger on The Huffington Post where he writes primarily about domestic politics in the US as well as The Faster Times where he writes about foreign policy and baseball. He is currently working on a book about the Color Revolutions in the former Soviet Union.

Lincoln earned his Ph.D from Columbia University’s department of political science in 1996.

Blog Entries by Lincoln Mitchell

Towards the Next Victory on Health Care

58 Comments | Posted November 8, 2009 | 05:44 PM (EST)


The passage of the health care bill is good news for President Obama and the Democrats, but it is more a case of avoiding defeat than of scoring a decisive victory. Given that the Democrats have control of almost 60% of the seats in the House of Representatives, by a...

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One Year Later: A Return to Normalcy

18 Comments | Posted November 3, 2009 | 12:33 PM (EST)


The election of Barack Obama on November 4th, 2008 was unlike any election day in recent memory. It was not only a day that changed America -- all presidential elections do that -- but it was a day laden with symbolic, and real, meaning. The image of Barack Obama and...

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Is Anybody Still Surprised by Joe Lieberman?

352 Comments | Posted October 28, 2009 | 09:50 AM (EST)


Joe Lieberman's latest announcement that he will vote against cloture for a health care bill that includes the public option should surprise nobody, as Lieberman, in recent years, has demonstrated that his ideological home is no longer in the Democratic Party. Lieberman has also shown once again that he...

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Obama and the Political Center

124 Comments | Posted October 22, 2009 | 09:09 AM (EST)


The noise in recent months made by Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, the birthers and others on the far right as well as the bizarre accusations and claims that they make has obscured the more interesting story of the failure of any of these people or movements to get...

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What Olympia Snowe's Support Could Mean

125 Comments | Posted October 14, 2009 | 09:38 AM (EST)


The decision by Senator Olympia Snowe to support the health care bill in the senate finance committee on which Senator Snowe sits is good news, but it may not turn out to be a turning point towards getting meaningful health care reform. Snowe's vote gave the bill a solid...

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Did the NRCC Really Say Nancy Pelosi Should Be Put in Her Place?

66 Comments | Posted October 8, 2009 | 05:35 AM (EST)


The NRCC issued a statement this week attacking Nancy Pelosi for daring to question General McChrystal and calling on General McChrystal to "put her (Pelosi) in her place." The NRCC is charged with defeating the Democratic congress, so attacks on Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders should not, in...

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Why 2010 Will Not Be 1994

257 Comments | Posted October 1, 2009 | 01:05 AM (EST)


In the last few weeks, Republicans have put a new twist on their campaign of never ending fear. Now the Republicans are trying to scare Democrats into thinking that 2010 will be another 1994, meaning that the Democratic Party is poised for a sweeping defeat which will vindicate the Republican...

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The Pointlessness of the Racism Debate

335 Comments | Posted September 20, 2009 | 08:15 PM (EST)


The question of whether or not some of the attacks on President Obama are racist is not likely to end anytime soon. There is little that can be done to persuade some supporters of President Obama that comparing the African American president to a witch doctor is not racist, or...

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The Silence of the Republicans

214 Comments | Posted September 14, 2009 | 05:03 AM (EST)


The Republican shenanigans during President Obama's speech to Congress last week, including, but not limited to, Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) yelling "you lie," while extraordinarily disrespectful of the presidency, the Congress, and not least the American people, follows directly from a pattern of behavior by Republican leaders or by ordinary...

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Funding Medicare, Funding Health Care

31 Comments | Posted September 10, 2009 | 11:33 AM (EST)


One of the attacks on proposed health care reform that is rarely questioned is that the Medicare and Social Security systems are running out of money and that this would soon happen to any publicly funded health care system. This attack builds on some basic realities, but also takes some...

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Who Will Be Hurt if the Democrats Pass Health Care Alone

415 Comments | Posted September 2, 2009 | 09:04 AM (EST)


Eight months or so into the Obama presidency, it is pretty clear that Obama's bipartisan efforts have not been, and will almost certainly not be, fruitful. Critics of Obama might claim this is because Obama has already been captured by the far left of his party, while people more sympathetic...

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Health Care Reform and the Democratic Party

166 Comments | Posted August 24, 2009 | 04:39 PM (EST)


The debate within the Democratic Party over health care reform generally, and the public option specifically, raises several bigger questions about the party. These questions predate the health care debate, but the controversy surrounding the extent of the Democratic Party's commitment to extend health care to as many Americans as...

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Fearing Government Involvement in Health Care

858 Comments | Posted August 18, 2009 | 08:43 AM (EST)


One of the mantras of the opposition to meaningful health reform has been a fear of a government takeover of the health care sector. This fear is expressed virtually nonstop on talk radio, the right wing blogosphere, Fox News and at town hall meetings across the country. As we know,...

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Health Care and the Possibility of Change

175 Comments | Posted August 11, 2009 | 10:04 PM (EST)


It is difficult to believe that only 16 years ago some of us were outraged by the Harry and Louise ads. Those ads seem quaint compared to what we are seeing today from the opponents of health care reform and their scare tactics that are just short of saying that...

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Talking About Recovery, Talking About Recession

20 Comments | Posted August 3, 2009 | 07:22 PM (EST)


During an appearance on Face the Nation this past Sunday, Lawrence Summers, economic advisor to President Obama, remarked "Six months ago, when the president took office, we were talking about whether recession would become depression...Today we are talking about when recession is going to end." These comments only make sense...

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The Policeman, the President, the Professor, an Apology, and a Round of Beers

65 Comments | Posted July 27, 2009 | 07:05 PM (EST)


The recent incident in Cambridge involving Henry Louis Gates Jr. is indicative of the way we have talked, if not always thought, about race in America, at least white America, for the past few decades. Race is rarely a topic that is explored directly, even though it remains a constant,...

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Bobby Jindal, Dan Quayle and Socialist Health Care

279 Comments | Posted July 21, 2009 | 03:11 PM (EST)


Bobby Jindal has "seen enough" and Dan Quayle thinks President Obama needs to "tame the left wing of his party." Perhaps it is time to give the Republican Party some credit for consistency, if not exactly relevancy or accuracy. Dan Quayle, who has gracefully made the transition from boy wonder...

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Sonia Sotomayor and the Real Meaning of Republican Talking Points

91 Comments | Posted July 15, 2009 | 11:45 AM (EST)


The problem with reading Republican talking points as your questions at confirmation hearings is that sometimes the racism comes through pretty strongly. Senator Jeff Sessions' (R-AL) comment to Sonia Sotomayor "You have suggested that a judge's background and experience will impact their decision, which goes against the American ideal that...

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Sarah Palin, John Edwards and the Way We Choose Our Vice Presidents

106 Comments | Posted July 7, 2009 | 02:53 PM (EST)


Sarah Palin's announcement that she would resign as Governor of Alaska is either the final word in a strange and frenetic episode of American political history, or it is a first step towards what promises to be, if nothing else, an unpredictable presidential campaign. Palin's speech announcing her decision made...

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Now is Not the Time for Delay

14 Comments | Posted July 1, 2009 | 02:24 PM (EST)


President Obama's recent remarks to a largely gay audience at a White House event celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that he believes that after his term in office, gay people will be pleased with his work were a combination of strange, hopeful and, not least, puzzling. Obama's...

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