Raymond Duncan Gastil is an American social scientist, best known for evaluating political freedom  in the Freedom in the World reports published by Freedom House

Freedom House

Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...

".

Biography

Gastil received his BA (social relations, 1953), MA (Middle Eastern Studies, 1956) and PhD (Social Science, 1959) from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Pakistan (1953-4), and taught anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 and social science at the University of Oregon

University of Oregon

-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...

. He spent seven years as a researcher at the Hudson Institute

Hudson Institute

The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...

, analysing national security

National security

National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...

 and other policy issues, and contributed to the Institute's 1968 book, Can We Win in Vietnam?. In the early 1970s he worked at the Battelle Memorial Institute

Battelle Memorial Institute

Battelle Memorial Institute is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Battelle is a charitable trust organized as a nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of Ohio and is exempt from taxation under Section 501 of the...

. From 1977 to 1988 he was Director of Freedom House's annual survey.

Books

• (co-editor), Can We Win in Vietnam?, Armbruster et al. (Praeger, 1968).
• (co-editor), Why ABM?: Policy issues in the missile defense controversy, Holst and Schneider, eds. (Pergamon, 1969).
• Cultural Regions of the United States, University of Washington Press, 1976
• Social Humanities: Toward an Integrative Discipline of Science and Values (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1977).
• (co-editor), Promoting Democracy: Opportunities and Issues, Goldman and Douglas, eds. (Praeger, 1988).
• (co-editor), Democracy and Development in East Asia: Taiwan, South Korea, and The Philippines, Robinson (ed.) (American Enterprise Institute
  American Enterprise Institute
  The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
  
  , 1991).
• Progress: Critical Thinking About Historical Change (Westport: Praeger, 1993).
• (with Barnett Singer), The Pacific Northwest: Growth of a Regional Identity, McFarland, 2010