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

A Need for Restraint Over N. Korea’s Satellite

The Obama administration needs to engage in diplomacy if it is to make real progress with North Korea.

What’s Up with North Korea?

North Korea is planning more fireworks. Should we be concerned?

The Afghan Rubik’s Cube

Surges backfire, columnist Conn Hallinan argues, so the Obama administration should be looking at a different way of solving the great game in Afghanistan.

To Be or NATO Be

This is one of the questions that Obama and the Europeans must ask.

The AfPak Paradox

With its new unified approach, the Obama administration is trying to increase the U.S. focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan and simultaneously prepare for withdrawal.

NATO’s Frayed Lifeline

An army is only as good as its supply lines, which means that NATO is in trouble in Afghanistan.

Never Again (Maybe)

Although it’s been 30 years since the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge period, only last month did the first member of the Pol Pot regime go on trial.

U-20: Will the Global Economy Resurface?

Like an injured German U-Boat, the global economy continues to sink. Columnist Walden Bello asks: Can the G-20 meeting bring it back to the surface before we all perish?

A New U.S. Relationship with Libya?

The United States and Libya are on the verge of having a normal relationship.

Empire Roundtable

We asked FPIF’s senior analysts to weigh in on the future course of American foreign policy: maintenance of empire or its rejection?

Trouble in Paradise

Madagascar is in the middle of political turmoil. The United States should resist the impulse to interfere.

On Trial 60 Years Later

Although it concluded more than 60 years ago, the Tokyo War Crimes Trial is still a live issue today — in Japan as in the world at large.

Progress on Cluster Bombs

With troops heading to Afghanistan and the Pentagon budget still rising, here’s some good news from the military front.

Naval Gazing

Before the Chinese show up off the coast of California for some imperial quid pro quo, the United States should wake up, sign the Law of the Sea, and actually abide by its provisions.

Strategic Dialogue: Responsibility to Protect

In response to genocide and ethnic cleansing, the UN has adopted a new doctrine called the Responsibility to Protect. Are we finally going to say “never again” or is it just “more of the same”?

R2P: Disciplining the Mice, Freeing the Lions

The Responsibility to Protect doctrine, regardless of the good intentions of some proponents, is just another method for the more powerful to impose their will on the less powerful.

R2P: No Love in a Time of Cholera

Inaction in the face of genocide is itself a crime.

R2P: Focus on Prevention

When it comes to protecting people from genocide, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Hearts and Minds and Empire

The Obama administration is going 3D: defense, diplomacy, and development. Is this a major shift from Bush-era doctrine or simply an updated version of the old counterinsurgency approach?

Sex Trafficking: The Abolitionist Fallacy

Criminalizing prostitution might seem like a good way to address sex trafficking.

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

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