John Feffer is director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies.

He is the author, most recently, of Aftershock: A Journey into Eastern Europe’s Broken Dreams (Zed Books). He is also the author of the dystopian novel Splinterlands (Dispatch Books) and its soon-to-be-released sequel Frostlands. He is the author of several other books, and his articles have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, USAToday, Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, and many other publications.

He has been an Open Society fellow, a PanTech fellow in Korean Studies at Stanford University, a Herbert W. Scoville fellow, a writing fellow at Provisions Library in Washington, DC, and a writer in residence at Blue Mountain Center and the Wurlitzer Foundation.

He is a former associate editor of World Policy Journal. He has worked as an international affairs representative in Eastern Europe and East Asia for the American Friends Service Committee. He has studied in England and Russia, lived in Poland and Japan, and traveled widely throughout Europe and Asia.

John has been widely interviewed in print, on radio, and TV.

Learn more about him on his website.

Latest

Iran: Deal or No Deal?

Rare are the moments when enormously complex situations lend themselves to unambiguous yes-or-no answers. This is one of them.

The 47 Republican Samurai

The Senate GOP’s letter to Iran was an act of vengeance for their discredited code of honor: neoconservatism.

The Kremlin’s Kool-Aid

Washington is responsible for a plethora of global calamities. But Putin’s Russia isn’t offering an appealing alternative at all.

Is Japan’s Prime Minister the Next Putin?

America’s top ally in East Asia is bulking up its military, picking fights with its neighbors, and showing a blithe disregard for democracy.

Can Ukraine Gnaw Its Way out of Trouble?

If Ukraine wants to move closer to the West, it will probably have to submit to the knife.

ISIS Unites the World

There’s no better time for Sunni and Shia to sit down together and address not just ISIS but the injustice, intolerance, and inequality that birthed it.

Hollywood’s ‘Furriner’ Problem

In films like American Sniper and The Interview, Americans are the heroes and “furriners” are the targets: an undifferentiated group of people so alien that they’re practically subhuman.

The European Union May Be on the Verge of Collapse

The complex federal project of the EU has proven fragile in the absence of a strong external threat.

Charlie Hebdo: Middle East Blowback?

After the Paris massacre, European governments should resist narratives of civilizational conflict and push for a ceasefire in the Syrian war.

The Games of Our Lives

Can video games crowdsource more democratic solutions to the world’s problems?

America Held Hostage

A few Americans are held hostage by al-Qaeda. The rest of us are held hostage by the U.S. overreliance on military force.

The Life and Times of Michael B

Ferguson put the U.S.’ racial apartheid on the global stage.

Korea’s Balloon War

South Korean activists are using balloons to send political and religious propaganda across the DMZ. They’re also endangering Koreans on both sides of the border.

The Sum of Our Fears

Has the Internet and social media primed us to worry too much about improbable threats — and too little about probable ones?

Recognizing Palestine

As more European governments line up to recognize a Palestinian state, Israel (and the U.S.) look more isolated than ever.

Barack Obama and the Will to Fight

Obama is more than willing to stand up against the Islamic State. Too bad he wasn’t willing to stand up to his hawkish critics.

We Can’t Go On Eating Like This

With more of us crowding a warming planet, we need agricultural change.

The Cold War Never Ended

Vladimir Putin is not reviving the Cold War. Rather, the U.S. failed to end it when it had the chance.

Obama: Into Africa

President Obama is definitely “into” Africa. Unfortunately that has translated into holding the door open for U.S. multinationals to do what outsiders have done for centuries: extract the continent’s wealth.

Four Myths American Exceptionalists Peddle About President Obama and the U.S.’ Role in the World

It has become all too common, with crises spiraling out of control in Gaza, Iraq, Ukraine, and elsewhere, to criticize the U.S. president for making his personal style of detachment into a national policy of disengagement.

Project Director and Associate Fellow

Epicenter, Foreign Policy in Focus

    Asia/Pacific, Military/Peace, NATO, North Korea, Northeast Asia, South Korea

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