Alan McPherson is Thomas J. Freaney, Jr. Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy (CENFAD) at Temple University in Philadelphia. He was previously at the University of Oklahoma (2008-2017) and Howard Uiversity (2001-2008). He is the prize-winning author of ten books and dozens of articles and chapters, mostly on US-Latin American relations. He was born in 1970 in Berkeley, California, grew up in QuÉbec, and trained at the University of Montreal, San Francisco State University, and the University of North Carolina. He has been a fellow at Harvard and twice a Fulbright fellow.