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

The Secret History of Yugoslavia

How Slobodan Milosevic quietly stoked sectarian bloodshed even as he wrapped himself in the Yugoslavian flag.

Bulgaria’s Labor Perpetually in Crisis

From the perspectives of trade unions, the reforms in Bulgaria over the last 20 years have been disastrous.

Revisiting the Velvet Divorce

Czechoslovakia, though it no longer exists, remains a symbol of courageous resistance and sensible conflict resolution

The Two Europes

Along with the divide between rich and poor in Europe, another has opened between the mobile and the stationary.

Bulgaria: The Next Generation

Bulgaria’s younger generation is distinguished from those who lived during the communist era by an awareness of the rest of the world — and how it perceives Bulgaria.

Organizing the Public in East-Central Europe

NGOs devoted to public works paradoxically became part of the wave of privatization that swept the region.

Human Rights in Serbia

One of the major problems plaguing the Balkans is impunity.

Eating History

Despite its triumphalism, the GDR museum in Berlin suggests that reunification remains an unfinished business.

The Bulgarian Turn

Not even the intelligentsia in Bulgaria are immune to the siren song of the new nationalism to which more and more Europeans are susceptible.

Escape From Ignorance and Chalga (Part 3)

Over the last quarter century, the population of Bulgaria has dropped from 9 to 7.3 million people.

Escape From Ignorance and Chalga (Part 2)

Over the last quarter century, the population of Bulgaria has dropped from 9 to 7.3 million people.

Escape From Ignorance and Chalga (Part 1)

Over the last quarter century, the population of Bulgaria has dropped from 9 to 7.3 million people.

Serbia’s Strategic Ambiguity and the EU

As Washington does with Beijing and Taipei, Serbia practices strategic ambiguity with Kosovo.

The Failure of Funding Roma Inclusion

Money that the European Commission provides to Bulgaria to fund Roma inclusion projects is diverted elsewhere.

Fight for Human Rights in Bulgaria Meets With Mixed Success

The recent attack on a Bulgarian politician who champions immigrant rights wasn’t a clear-cut case of ultra-right nationalism.

When Soft Power Fails

“Soft power” doesn’t work when it’s a fig leaf for military dominance.

Where Bulgaria Went Wrong

Bulgaria naively embarked upon a ready-made Western model of change: neoliberalism.

Taming the Wild East: Bulgaria

Risk Monitor’s Stefan Popov is trying to change the image of Bulgaria as the Wild East frontier of the European Union.

On Brink of Admission to EU, Some Croatians Still Euro-skeptic

Daniel Bucan is not your usual run-of-the-mill Euroskeptic. He’s a former diplomat whose last posting was in Strasbourg, at the Council of Europe.

Whither Serbia’s Future When Its Citizens Elect “The Undertaker” President?

Many of the same people from the Milosevic era have been returned to power.

Project Director and Associate Fellow

Epicenter, Foreign Policy in Focus

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

    UpFront: Russia’s War in Ukraine

    KPFA | January 29, 2024

    Talkies

    KPFA | January 19, 2024

    Tensions High Over Russia’s War in Ukraine

    The Greenfield (MA) Recorder, The Tulsa (OK) World | October 23, 2023

    UpFront

    KPFA | October 2, 2023

    UpFront

    KPFA | September 18, 2023

    Technics and Civilization: Lithium and Society

    Korean IT Times | September 7, 2023

    More...