Zdenek Drabek is currently Research Fellow at the Center for Graduate Education and the Economic Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CERGE-EI), Visiting Professor at the Institute of Economic Studies of Charles University and a member of the Scientific Council of Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague. He returned to Prague after a long engagement in the WTO, the World Bank and 13 years at Universities of Oxford and Buckingham. In the rank of government minister, he acted as the Chief Government Negotiator of the accession to the European Union, in the Uruguay Round of GATT, CEFTA and bilateral negotiations with the World Bank and the IMF. Previously, he assisted other countries in negotiating trade and investment agreements with the United States and the European Union as well as among themselves and countries’ accession into the WTO.
He is a recipient of numerous awards, including Ford, German-Marshall, Pew, and the Mellon Foundations Fellowships, British Know-How Fund and Charter Foundation and holds honorary doctorates from universities in the United States and China. He has been the co-founder or member of several think tanks such as the Dutch-based think tank FONDAD, Stanford Research Institute, Leverhulme Centre for Research, Globalization and Economic Policy (UK), The European Institute (Washington, DC) and Joint Vienna Institute. He has lectured at universities and research institutions in Japan, China, Central Asia. His advisory activities included work with the late Edward Kennedy, US Congressman Bereuter, supranational bodies in Africa and South Asia, international organizations, governments and private corporations, financial firms and foundations.
Dr. Drabek latest book is Regulation of Foreign Direct Investment – Limits to Multilateral Harmonization. He has edited other books such as Globalization under Threat. His articles have published in major economic journals. His previous books include Is the WTO Attractive Enough for Emerging Economies; Critical Essays in the Multilateral Trading System and Can Regional Trading Arrangements Enforce Trade Disciplines?
Dr. Drabek provided regular economic commentary for radios and TV and
has been the invited public speaker by various professional and industrial
associations, banks, government and private corporations. He holds a D.Phil.
degree in economics from Oxford University, M.A. and B.A. from University of
Cambridge and Dipl. Ing. in economics from Prague School of Economics.