Dr. Casas-Zamora is Vice President of Costa Rica. Prior to this appointment, he was Associate Professor of State Theory at the University of Costa Rica and international consultant on political finance issues, coordinating the United Nations Development Program's National Human Development Report for Costa Rica. He holds a law degree from the University of Costa Rica, an M.A. in Latin American Government and Politics from Essex University and a D.Phil. in Politics from St. Antony's College, Oxford University. His doctoral dissertation at Oxford won the European Consortium for Political Research PhD Thesis Prize in 2003. He has written extensively on political finance, elections,… democratization and civil-military relations in Latin America.