William Dobson is an American journalist and author of ;“The Dictator’s Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy,” an analysis of modern-day authoritarianism and its citizen opponents. During the height of the Arab Spring, Dobson wrote daily pieces on modern authoritarianism and dictatorships for The Washington Post, and reported from Cairo during the height of protests in Tahrir Square. Dobson is currently the politics and foreign affairs editor for ;Slate.

From 2004 to 2008, Dobson was the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine. During Dobson’s tenure, the magazine was nominated for the National Magazine Award five years in a row—a record-breaking number of consecutive nominations of a publication of its size—and won the prize twice.He was named a 2006 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and served as a visiting Scholar at the ;Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Dobson has also served as the senior editor for Newsweek International. Dobson attended Middlebury College before earning a master’s in East Asian Studies from Harvard and a doctorate from Harvard Law School.