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

Letter from Okinawa

There is perhaps more common ground between Okinawans and Marines than either Washington or Tokyo imagines.

The Not-So-Great Game

What would happen if we stopped playing games with Iran?

The Sick Man of North America

My modestly priced new ebook covers the worsening health of U.S. foreign policy and the efforts to revive the patient.

The Next Marx

The financial crisis and the Occupy movement have challenged Left-Right distinctions and prompted calls for an entirely new economic order.

All Over the Map: The Best of World Beat

Collection of more than 125 Foreign Policy In Focus columns covering war, peace, terrorism, global economics, culture, democracy, and the environment.

State of the Union’s Foreign Policy: Unilateral Triumphalism

In Address to Congress, President Obama returned to his perceived strong suit to discuss how the United States must operate from a position of strength.

Pollyanna of Peace?

Is global violence really at an all-time low?

Approaching North Korea in the Kim Jong Un Era

Every time a new administration takes office in Washington, it behaves like an amnesiac toward North Korea.

Cult of Personality

When we focus our analysis on personalities like Assad in Syria or Kim Jong Un in North Korea, we succumb to our own personality cult.

The Apocalyptics

Dress them up in black, put some Goth makeup on them, give them a name like The Apocalyptics, and the Republican candidates would fit right in with the head-banger crowd.

All-American Bigotry

In a TLC show, Muslims amply demonstrate that they’re ordinary, mainstream Americans. Now it’s time for the rest of us to do the same by standing up to the Islamophobes.

Nigeria with Nukes

Millions of people have thronged the streets of cities all over the world this last year to protest the influence of money on power–the corruption in Mubarak’s Egypt and Ben Ali’s Tunisia, the malign effects of Wall Street and other financial institutions, the power elite in Russia.

The Other Kim

South Korean parliamentarian Kim Geun-Tae was a soft-spoken man dedicated to reunification of the Koreas.

Two Cold War Milestones

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Czech leader Vaclav Havel, although political opposites, shared some things in common.

North Korea on the Verge of a New Era?

The Obama administration has achance to use the death of Kim Jong Il to open a new chapter in its relationship with North Korea.

Architects of Change

Want to build a new society for peace, justice, and sustainability? Ask an architect.

Two Leaders, Two Deaths

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Czech leader Vaclav Havel occupied the opposite ends of the political continuum.

The New Chicken Littles

After Islamist parties won three elections in a row, Chicken Littles threw up their hands in horror.

Appeasement Complex

Is detente with Burma just around the corner?

Occupy Foreign Affairs

Inequality has become so extreme that even the foreign policy elite is worried.

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...