Stephen R. Weissman is an independent political scientist. He has served as Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Africa, Public Citizen’s Legislative Representative for Campaign Finance and Election Reform Citizen and Associate Director for Policy at the Campaign Finance Institute. He is author of two books, American Foreign Policy in the Congo 1960-1964 (Cornell University Press) and A Culture of Deference: Congress’s Failure of Leadership in Foreign Policy (Basic Books), and has written widely on U.S. foreign policy and campaign finance issues. His articles on U.S. policy towards Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and Congo, Congress and War, Presidential deception in foreign policy and CIA covert action have appeared in Foreign Affairs, In These Times, The Hill, Presidential Studies Quarterly and Intelligence and National Security. Weissman has taught at several universities including Fordham, University of Texas at Dallas, Howard and the National University of Zaire.