Jonathan is originally from Minneapolis, MN, and has been at Stanford since November 2005. Previously he worked in international education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Iowa State University where he advised for and developed study abroad programs. His international study, work, and program leadership destinations include Australia, Mexico, Spain, and the UK. He has a Master of Education in Higher Education with foci on student development and leadership. He enjoys music, hiking, camping, soccer, tennis, wine tasting, and traveling.

Professor Stedman’s research addresses the future of international organizations and institutions. In the fall of 2003 he was recruited to serve as the research director of the U.N. High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change to analyze global security threats and propose far-reaching reforms to the international system. He also served at the U.N. as a special advisor with the rank of assistant secretary-general, to help gain worldwide support in implementing the panel's recommendations. He was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, where he studied the negotiations for a new constitution. He was an election observer in Angola in 1992 and in South Africa in 1994. He has served as a consultant to the United Nations on issues of peacekeeping in civil war, light weapons proliferation and conflict in Africa, and preventive diplomacy. Stedman has taught courses on international conflict management, war in the twentieth century, and the Rwandan genocide.