Lincoln Mitchell

Focus Areas: International Relations, Democracy, US Politics, Politics of San Francisco, Baseball, Georgia

Lincoln Mitchell is a professor, pundit and writer based in New York City and San Francisco. He teaches in Columbia University’s political science department and School of International and Public Affairs. Lincoln has been a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion, NBC News, Brussels Morning and the San Francisco Examiner, and was the national political correspondent for The New York Observer from 2014-2016. He currently writes the popular Substack “Kibitzing with Lincoln."

Lincoln has worked on democracy and governance related issues in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He also occasionally works with businesses and NGOs globally, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Lincoln writes and speaks about US politics as well. In addition, he has years of experience as a political consultant advising and managing domestic political campaigns.

Dr. Mitchell is an accomplished scholar and writer whose current research includes democratic rollback in the US, the political history of San Francisco, US-Georgia relations, political development in the former Soviet Union, the role of democracy promotion in American foreign policy and baseball.  He has written nine books: Uncertain Democracy: US Foreign Policy and Georgia’s Rose Revolution, (Penn Press 2008), The Color Revolutions, (Penn Press 2012), The Democracy Promotion Paradox (Brookings 2016), Will Big League Baseball Survive? Globalization, the End of Television, Youth Sports and the Future of Major League Baseball (Temple University Press 2016), Baseball Goes West: How the Dodgers and Giants Shaped the Major Leagues (Kent State University Press 2018), San Francisco Year Zero: Political Upheaval, Punk Rock and a Third Place Baseball Team (Rutgers University Press, 2019), The Giants and Their City: Major League Baseball in San Francisco, 1976-1992 (Kent State University Press, 2021), The One Hundred Most Important Players in Baseball History (Artemesia Press, 2023), and Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco (University of Nevada Press 2025). 

Dr. Mitchell has written articles on these topics at CNN, Reuters, The Washington Post, The New York Times. The Forward, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty The National Interest, Orbis, The Moscow Times, the Washington Quarterly, The American Interest, The National Interest, Survival, the Central Asian Survey, World Affairs Journal, The New York Daily News, Tablet, The New Republic and Current History as well as for numerous other publications. He is the author of the popular Substack Kibitzing with Lincoln.

Lincoln has been quoted extensively in most major American, Georgian and European newspapers and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs and podcasts including Fox and Friends, All Things Considered, Lou Dobbs, the Jim Lehrer Newshour, Background Briefing with Ian Masters, The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen, ABC Nightline, the Diane Rehm Show, Up and In: The Baseball Prospectus Podcast, the Cespedes Family Barbecast, Sports Byline and The BBC as well as numerous Georgian television programs.

Lincoln earned his BA from UC Santa Cruz and his Ph.D from Columbia University.

Education

• PhD in Political Science, Columbia University, 1996
• BA Politics, UC Santa Cruz, 1989