Born in 1961, Darmanovic served in the former Yugoslavia’s federal parliament from 1992-1996.

 

In 1997, he founded and became president of the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization and think tank based in Podgorica, Montenegro. He remained with the center until accepting his ambassador post in the U.S.

 

Concurrently, he was an international research group member for the Aspen Institute (1997-1998), as well as an associate professor of comparative politics at the University of Montenegro and the first dean of the university’s faculty of political science (2003-2010).

 

He testified twice before the Helsinki Commission of the U.S. Congress (1998, 2000), and has been a guest lecturer at The Johns Hopkins University, as well as at universities in Rome, Hamburg and Belgrade, where he was a member of the political science faculty.

 

Darmanovic has been a member of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe since 2005, working on the commission’s Council for Democratic Elections and Sub-Committee for Democratic Institutions.

 

He is the author of two books—Malformed Democracy: the Drama of Yugoslav Post-Communism (1993) and Real-Socialism: Anatomy of a Collapse (1996). Darmanovic also has co-authored several books and written articles in publications such as the Washington, DC-based Journal of Democracy and the East European Constitutional Review in New York City and Budapest.

 

Darmanovic is an international chess master with a rating of 2,282. He is ranked 9,861th in the world and 39th in Monenegro, according to the World Chess Federation.

 

Biography (Washington Diplomat)

FIDE Chess Profile (World Chess Federation)