Michael Soussan

Last updated

Michael Soussan
Born1973 (age 50–51)
NationalityDanish
Education
Occupation(s)Reporter
writer
Known forWhistleblowing Oil-for-Food Program
Notable workBackstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy
Website michaelsoussan.com

Michael Soussan (born 1973) is a Danish-born reporter, writer and whistleblower. [1] He lives in Los Angeles, California. [2]

He became famous for his 2008 book Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy, about the widespread corruption and financial abuse, at the highest levels, that he found while working for the Oil-for-Food Program under the United Nations in Iraq. The book was the basis of the 2018 feature film Backstabbing for Beginners , starring Ben Kingsley and Theo James and directed by Per Fly Plejdrup. [3]

Soussan was born in 1973 in Denmark to a Sephardi Jewish father and a Danish mother. Soussan's father was born in Casablanca and immigrated to Israel. There, he met Soussan's mother, a Danish Protestant who had gone to work on a kibbutz. [4] In Backstabbing for Beginners, Soussan writes "the result [of his parents' relationship] was a child who could best be described as a Sephardic Viking." [5]

Soussan grew up mostly in Paris and immigrated to the United States at 18. He attended Brown University, where he co-founded and edited the Brown Journal of World Affairs . [6] He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the university in 1996. [4] After graduating, Soussan planned to pursue a career in law. After working at a law firm in Washington, D.C., however, he became disillusioned with Capitol Hill and decided to pivot to a career more humanitarian in nature. [4]

At a friend's recommendation, Soussan applied for a job at the United Nations, which would involve traveling to Iraq. Soussan was chosen for the job, in part because he did not hold American or British citizenship. In a 2018 interview, Soussan reflected on his outlook at the time, stating "At Brown, they teach you to be idealistic — but they don’t teach you how the world works. I had to find that out." [4]

Soussan arrived in Iraq in 1997 where he worked for the Oil-for-Food Program. For much of his time in the country, Soussan worked as the assistant to Benon Sevan, the Armenian Cypriot administrator of the program. According to Backstabbing for Beginners, Soussan was present at the alleged 1998 deal in which Sevan began receiving bribes from the government of Baathist Iraq. [7]

As a journalist and commentator he has contributed to The New York Times, [8] The New Republic, [9] The Wall Street Journal [10] and many others, including from Afghanistan [11] and Iraq. [12]

Related Research Articles

The foreign relations of Afghanistan are in a transitional phase since the 2021 fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the collapse of the internationally-recognized Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. No country has recognised the new Taliban-run government, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Although some countries have engaged in informal diplomatic contact with the Islamic Emirate, formal relations remain limited to representatives of the Islamic Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zalmay Khalilzad</span> Afghan-American diplomat (born 1951)

Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad is an American diplomat and foreign policy expert. Khalilzad was U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation from September 2018 to October 2021. Khailzad was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as United States ambassador to the United Nations, serving in the role from 2007 to 2009. Khalilzad was the highest ranking Muslim-American in government at the time he left the position. Prior to this, Khalilzad served in the Bush administration as ambassador to Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005 and Ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oil-for-Food Programme</span> Programme headed by the United Nations

The Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP) was established by the United Nations in 1995 to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs for ordinary Iraqi citizens without allowing Iraq to boost its military capabilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Provincial Reconstruction Team</span> 2002–2013 US military unit in unstable states

A Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) was a unit introduced by the United States government, consisting of military officers, diplomats, and reconstruction subject matter experts, working to support reconstruction efforts in unstable states. PRTs were first established in Afghanistan in early 2002, and were used in Iraq as well. While the concepts are similar, PRTs in Afghanistan and Iraq had separate compositions and missions. Their common purpose, however, was to empower local governments to govern their constituents more effectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the United States (1991–2008)</span>

The history of the United States from 1991 to 2008 began after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The dissolution signaled the end of the Cold War and left the U.S. unchallenged as the world's sole superpower. The U.S. took a leading role in military involvement in the Middle East. The U.S. expelled an Iraqi invasion force from Kuwait, a Middle Eastern ally of the U.S., in the Persian Gulf War. On the domestic front, the Democrats won a return to the White House with the election of Bill Clinton in 1992. In the 1994 midterm election, the Republicans won control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Strife between Clinton and the Republicans in Congress initially resulted in a federal government shutdown following a budget crisis, but later they worked together to pass welfare reform, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and a balanced budget. Charges from the Lewinsky scandal led to the 1998 impeachment of Clinton by the House of Representatives but he was later acquitted by the Senate. The U.S. economy boomed in the enthusiasm for high-technology industries in the 1990s until the NASDAQ crashed as the dot-com bubble burst and the early 2000s recession marked the end of the sustained economic growth.

Benon Vahe Sevan was the head of the United Nations' Oil-for-Food Programme, established in 1996 and charged with preventing Iraq's government from using the proceeds from oil exports for anything but food, medicine and other items to benefit the civilian population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fouad Ajami</span> Lebanese–American academic (1945 – 2014)

Fouad A. Ajami was a Lebanese-born American university professor and writer on Middle Eastern issues. He was a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Claudia Rosett was an American author and journalist. An editorial board member of The Wall Street Journal, she was the only print journalist to witness the Tiananmen Square massacre and later broke the United Nations’ Oil for Food scandal, the largest public fraud in history. After her Journal career in Hong Kong, Moscow, and New York, she wrote a foreign affairs column for Forbes, blogged for PJ Media, and made regular appearances on national television and radio, including Fox Business. She also worked for the Independent Women's Forum and the London Center for Policy Research, and served as an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute.

<i>Brown Journal of World Affairs</i>

The Brown Journal of World Affairs is a biannual academic journal of international relations and foreign policy produced at Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. It was founded in 1993 as the Brown Journal of Foreign Affairs by Daniel Cruise, Alex Scribner, and Michael Soussan. The journal features essays written by world leaders, policymakers, and prominent academics. Each issue is composed of three thematic sections dedicated to exploring different topics in contemporary international politics and economics. In addition, each issue includes an open essay section, in which a wide variety of global issues are discussed.

On 6 August 1990, four days after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) placed a comprehensive embargo on Iraq. The sanctions stayed largely in force until 22 May 2003, and persisted in part, including reparations to Kuwait. The original stated purposes of the sanctions were to compel Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, to pay reparations, and to disclose and eliminate any weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Richard Roth is an American journalist, a CNN correspondent who covers the United Nations. He was the host of Diplomatic License, a weekly program that was devoted to United Nations affairs. Roth is a CNN "original" — one of the first employees when the network launched in 1980. He has covered a wide range of stories over the last 25 years, from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first Gulf War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pratap Chatterjee</span> Journalist and author

Pratap Chatterjee is an Indian/Sri Lankan investigative journalist and progressive author. He is a British citizen and grew up in India, although he lived in California for many years. He serves as the executive director of CorpWatch, an Oakland-based corporate accountability organisation. He also works for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London. He writes regularly for The Guardian and serves on the board of Amnesty International USA and of the Corporate Europe Observatory

Beginner Books is the Random House imprint for young children ages 3–9, co-founded by Phyllis Cerf with Ted Geisel, more often known as Dr. Seuss, and his wife Helen Palmer Geisel. Their first book was Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat (1957), whose title character appears in the brand's logo. Cerf compiled a list of 379 words as the basic vocabulary for young readers, along with another 20 slightly harder "emergency" words. No more than 200 words were taken from that list to write The Cat in the Hat. Subsequent books in the series were modeled on the same requirement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vali Nasr</span> Iranian-American academic and author (born 1960)

Vali Reza Nasr is an Iranian-American academic and author, specializing in the Middle East and the Islamic world. He is Majid Khaddouri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. He served as the eighth dean of the school from 2012 to 2019. Nasr is also a Non-Resident Fellow in South Asia at Atlantic Council and is described by The Economist as "a leading world authority on Shia Islam".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Per Fly</span> Danish film director

Per Fly Plejdrup is a Danish film director, generally credited simply as Per Fly. He has made many films and television shows broadcast on Danish television. Per Fly's awards includes the Crown Prince Couple's Culture Prize in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denmark–United States relations</span> Bilateral relations

Diplomatic relations between Denmark and the United States of America began in 1783. Both countries are members of the Arctic Council, OECD, OSCE, NATO and the United Nations.

The Oil-for-Food Program Hearings were held by the U.S Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations beginning in 2004 to investigate abuses of the United Nations (UN) Oil-for-Food Programme in which the economically sanctioned country of Iraq was intended to be able to sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for vital food and medicine for its population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Dobbins (diplomat)</span> American diplomat (1942–2023)

James Francis Dobbins Jr. was an American diplomat who served as United States ambassador to the European Union (1991–1993), assistant secretary of state for European affairs (2001), and special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy. Additionally, Dobbins served as envoy to Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti, and Somalia. In 2001, he led negotiations leading to the Bonn Agreement, and served as acting ambassador of the United States to Afghanistan during the transitional period. He was later head of international and security policy for the RAND Corporation.

<i>Backstabbing for Beginners</i> 2018 film by Per Fly

Backstabbing for Beginners is a 2018 political thriller film directed and co-written by Per Fly, and based on the memoirs of Michael Soussan. It follows the real life corruption scandal in the UN Oil-for-Food Programme, and stars Theo James and Ben Kingsley.

Jean-Bernard Mérimée was a French diplomat. In 2005 he admitted to accepting bribes in connection to the Oil-for-Food Program.

References

  1. ↑ "A somewhat indiscreet look inside the murky world of UN diplomacy". The Irish Times .
  2. ↑ "Michael Soussan Bio". Michael Soussan.
  3. ↑ "Theo James, Per Fly & Michael Soussan Discuss Their Film, "Backstabbing for Beginners"". Build. 17 April 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Palmer, Joanne. "Michael Soussan talks about what he's learned from his kickback scandal". jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  5. ↑ Soussan, Michael (1 June 2010). Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy. PublicAffairs. p. 34. ISBN   978-1-56858-441-6.
  6. ↑ Cruise, Daniel; Soussan, Michael (2003). "Ten Year Retrospective". The Brown Journal of World Affairs. 10 (1): vii–viii. JSTOR   24590590.
  7. ↑ Rosett, Claudia. "Amnesia, Followed By Near-Total Recall". Forbes. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  8. ↑ Soussan, Michael. "The Myth of Neutrality". NY Times. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  9. ↑ Soussan, Michael (31 May 2004). "Black Gold". The New Republic. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  10. ↑ Soussan, Michael (8 October 2014). "The Challenge of Urban Warfare with ISIS". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  11. ↑ Soussan, Michael (August 2011). "Afghan Women at a Crossroads". Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  12. ↑ Soussan, Michael. "Condemning 'Chemical Ali' is not enough". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 28 October 2022.


Flag of Denmark.svg Quill and ink.svg

This article about a Danish writer or poet is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.