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
American decline could worsen with focus on Iran and China
PARIS -- The framework in which most Americans, including the foreign policy specialists, see the world has totally changed in a decade. Americans in 2002 believed themselves on top of the world, capable of anything.
Is a nuclear Iran really to be feared?
PARIS -- The obsession of the American foreign policy community, as well as most American politicians, by the myth of Iran's "existential" threat to Israel, brings the world steadily closer to another war in the Middle East.
Election will decide which new wars will be waged
PARIS -- Now that America's primary elections have eliminated the more implausible contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, it is possible to take a clearer look at what the electorate will be up against when the conventions are over...
Karzai's Bagram demands add stress to US policy
PARIS -- The Afghan government's order a week ago to the United States to close its prison at Bagram Air Base near Kabul, where it holds unidentified prisoners, came as a shock to Washington, although President Hamid Karzai has before invited the ...
Ron Paul's popularity in Iowa a sign of a war-weary America
PARIS -- The opinion polls' forecast that Rep. Ron Paul would do well in the Iowa Republican caucus has surely not been evidence of a surge in Iowa of hostility to the Federal Reserve and to free trade.
Arab Awakening could begin to resemble European Enlightenment
PARIS -- There are only three valid reasons why the Middle East, the focus of international attention as 2012 begins, is important to the United States and the European nations. Those reasons themselves are seriously weakened today.
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