William Pfaff
William Pfaff is a globally respected political commentator and author on international relations, contemporary history and U.S. policy. He is published in five countries and his column is syndicated by Tribune Media Services.
The American Academy of Diplomacy in 2006 awarded him its annual prize for distinguished commentary, saying that "for more than a generation, William Pfaff has been called the 'dean' of American columnists and commentators. Few can rival his impact on thinking about the deepest dilemmas of foreign policy and the prime movers in human society, inspired by his moral vision of the proper use of power and limits on its abuse." The late American historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., called him "Walter Lippmann's authentic heir."
Pfaff is the author of eight books on American foreign relations and contemporary history, including analyses of nationalism and political utopianism. His "Barbarian Sentiments," was a National Book Award finalist and winner of the city of Geneva's Prix Jean-Jacques Rousseau. A recent compendium of his columns on the early years of the war on terror, "Fear, Anger and Failure,'' was described by Russell Baker of The New York Times as "page after page, article after article what should have been said week after week [in Washington] as Bush's cheery civilian warriors marched us into the Middle East. Really splendid work." Peter Preston, former editor of London's The Guardian, reviewed the book under the title, "the man who was right."
Pfaff also writes for The New York Review of Books, and has contributed to Foreign Affairs, World Policy Journal, The National Interest, and to leading European political journals. For twenty years he was political essayist for The New Yorker magazine. He is the former deputy director of Hudson Research Europe in Paris, European affiliate of the well-known American policy research institute of the 1960s and 1970s. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a veteran of infantry and Special Forces service in the U.S. Army.
William Pfaff Samples
The Truth About American and Israeli Interests Comes Out
PARIS -- The relationship between the United States and Israel has always rested on a number of pretensions, politically useful to politicians on both sides, but because they are untrue, certain eventually to prove destructive to both countries.
Is There a Mideast Solution?
DOHA, Qatar -- Internationally speaking, there are only two subjects to talk about in the Middle East.
In World's Economic Crisis, Competition in Ignominy Remains Keen
DOHA, Qatar -- On my flight to Doha, where money doesn't seem to be a problem, I read in London's Guardian about the vultures making serious money out of the poorest national economies in the current international crisis.
U.S. Allies in Europe Begin to Pull Back
PARIS -- Last Friday five NATO governments made it known that they want American nuclear weapons removed from their territory.
Europe Needs to Lose Belief in Its Own Inadequacy
PARIS -- Much has been written and said about making the European Union a "world player."
Diplomacy in Afghanistan? Not Until U.S. Identifies Why It's There
PARIS -- Richard Holbrooke's comments on reconciliation with the Taliban in Afghanistan, made during the recent Munich Security Conference, echoed earlier remarks by UN officials and American military commanders in Kabul that suggest that diplomac...
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