Alfredo Toro Hardy


Alfredo Toro Hardy is a Venezuelan scholar and retired diplomat who served as ambassador to several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Brazil over a diplomatic career spanning four decades.

Education

Toro Hardy graduated with a law degree from the Central University of Venezuela in 1973. He earned a diploma in diplomatic studies from the École nationale d'administration and a diploma in comparative law from the Paris-Panthéon-Assas University in 1975. He received his M.S. from UCV in 1977 and his Master of Laws from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979.

Career

He has been a Member of the Advising Committee of London's Diplomatic Academy since 2003 and was a visiting professor at Princeton University in 1986–1987 and the University of Brasilia in 1995–1996. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 1986–1987 and a Bellagio Center Resident Scholar in September 2011. He was an on-line professor at the University of Barcelona in 2005–2006.
He was elected by the Council of Faculties of the University of Cambridge as the Simón Bolívar Chair Professor for Latin American Studies for the period 2006–2007, but had to decline due to his diplomatic career. He was an associate professor at the Simón Bolívar University of Caracas, retiring in 1992. Toro Hardy was the Director of the Centre for North American Studies and Coordinator of the Institute for Higher Latin American Studies at the Simón Bolívar University in Caracas from 1989 to 1992. He was the Director of the "Pedro Gual" Diplomatic Academy of the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1992 to 1994.
He is the author or co-author of twenty-nine books and numerous academic articles on international affairs. The English version of his book The Age of Villages won the Latino Book Award in the category of contemporary history/political sciences, at the BookExpo America celebrated in Chicago in 2003, while his book Hegemony and Empire won the same prize at the same category at the BookExpo America celebrated in Los Angeles in 2008. He is a weekly columnist at the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal and a frequent contributor to newspapers, magazines, and blogs in Latin America and Spain.
His past ambassadorial posts are the following: