William J. Dobson

Last updated

William J. Dobson
Born
William Joel Dobson

(1973-03-02) March 2, 1973 (age 50)
North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States
Alma mater Middlebury College (AB)
Harvard University (AM)
Harvard Law School (JD)
OccupationCo-editor
Employer Journal of Democracy
Notable creditThe Dictator's Learning Curve

William J. "Will" Dobson is an American journalist and author who writes frequently on foreign affairs and international politics. He is the co-editor of the Journal of Democracy. Previous roles include Chief International Editor at NPR and the Politics and Foreign Affairs Editor for Slate. [1]

Contents

Early life

Dobson was born on a naval base in North Kingston, Rhode Island. His father, W. Joel Dobson, was a Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy. His mother, Barbara Joyce Dobson, is an English teacher.

Dobson grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and attended Spartanburg Day School. He received a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Middlebury College. He later earned a master's degree in East Asian Studies from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor cum laude from Harvard Law School. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two children. [2]

Career

From 2004 to 2008, Dobson was the Managing Editor of Foreign Policy magazine. During his tenure at Foreign Policy, the magazine was nominated for a National Magazine Award five years in a row – the only magazine of its size to receive five consecutive nominations – and won the top prize twice. [3]

Previously, he served as the Senior Editor for Asia at Newsweek International and as Associate Editor at Foreign Affairs. [4] He has also been a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. [5]

During the height of the Arab Spring, he wrote daily pieces on modern authoritarianism for the Washington Post’s editorial page. [2] While reporting from Cairo, Dobson wrote the first account of the Egyptian military’s torture of female protestors in Tahrir Square.

Dobson's first book, The Dictator's Learning Curve [6] was published by Doubleday in 2012. The non-fiction book is an analysis of modern authoritarianism and has been reviewed by various media. [7] The Washington Post , New York Times , Financial Times , and Publishers Weekly were among those giving positive reviews. [8]

Awards

Dobson was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2006. [9] In 2003, he was named the U.S. Rapporteur for the World Economic Forum's East Asia Summit. [10] The Singapore International Foundation awarded him a Distinguished Visitor Fellowship in 2008. [11] The East-West Center awarded him a Senior Journalist Fellowship for Southeast Asia (2006) and an Journalism Fellowship (2008). Dobson was a Knight Media Fellow (2003) to the Salzburg Global Seminar, and later a Freeman Fellow in U.S.-East Asian Relations (2007). [12]

Middlebury College recognized him with an Alumni Achievement Award in 2011. [13] Dobson is also a 1994 Truman Scholar. [14]

Published works

Books (Editor)

Books (Author)

Op-eds and articles

Media appearances

Dobson has appeared and provided commentary for various news organizations, including C-SPAN, [15] PBS NewsHour, [16] CNN, CBS, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and Voice of America.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill McKibben</span> American environmentalist and writer

William Ernest McKibben is an American environmentalist, author, and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and leader of the climate campaign group 350.org. He has authored a dozen books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature (1989), about climate change, and Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (2019), about the state of the environmental challenges facing humanity and future prospects.

<i>Slate</i> (magazine) U.S.-based online magazine

Slate is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 2004, it was purchased by The Washington Post Company, and since 2008 has been managed by The Slate Group, an online publishing entity created by Graham Holdings. Slate is based in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C.

<i>Foreign Policy</i> American news magazine and website

Foreign Policy is an American news publication, founded in 1970 and focused on global affairs, current events, and domestic and international policy. It produces content daily on its website and app, and in four print issues annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Murray (political scientist)</span> American political scientist (born 1943)

Charles Alan Murray is an American political scientist. He is the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC.

William C. Potter is Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor of Nonproliferation Studies and Founding Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). He also directs the MIIS Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fareed Zakaria</span> Indian-American journalist and author

Fareed Rafiq Zakaria is an Indian-American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and writes a weekly paid column for The Washington Post. He has been a columnist for Newsweek, editor of Newsweek International, and an editor at large of Time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan Cole</span> American scholar

John Ricardo Irfan "Juan" Cole is an American academic and commentator on the modern Middle East and South Asia. He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Since 2002, he has written a weblog, Informed Comment (juancole.com).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey</span> International affairs school of Middlebury College (Vermont)

The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), formerly known as the Monterey Institute of International Studies, is an American graduate school of Middlebury College, a private college in Middlebury, Vermont.

Spartanburg Day School is an independent, college preparatory 2K-12 school, located in unincorporated Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States, with a Spartanburg post office address, in the Greenville-Spartanburg area. It consists of a lower school for 2K-4th graders, a middle school for 5th–8th graders, and an upper school for 9th–12th graders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Bergen</span> American journalist

Peter Bergen is an American journalist, author, and producer who is CNN's national security analyst, a vice president at New America, a professor at Arizona State University and the host of the Audible podcast 'In the Room with Peter Bergen.'

Stephen Zunes is an American international relations scholar specializing in the Middle Eastern politics, U.S. foreign policy, and strategic nonviolent action. He is known internationally as a leading critic of United States policy in the Middle East, particularly under the George W. Bush administration, and an analyst of nonviolent civil insurrections against autocratic regimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute of Current World Affairs</span> American foundation

The Institute of Current World Affairs (ICWA) is an operating foundation established in 1925 by US industrial heir and magnate Charles Richard Crane to advance American understanding of international cultures and affairs by sending young professionals abroad to study countries, regions and globally important issues. Institute alumni include leading journalists, scholars, diplomats, activists and businesspeople.

The Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) was an American think tank that operated from 2009 to 2017.

Sol Witner Sanders was an American journalist specializing in Asia with more than twenty-five years in the region. He was a former correspondent for Business Week, U.S. News & World Report and United Press International. He traveled extensively in Mexico during the 1950s and was a correspondent in Vietnam in the 1960s. In 1967–1968, Sanders held the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations. Until his death, he continued to write weekly columns for World Tribune.com and East-Asia-Intel.com. In latter years, he lived in New York City and in Hawaii, where he was a scholar at the East–West Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roderic Ai Camp</span>

Roderic Ai Camp is an American academic specialized in Mexican studies. He is a frequent consultant to international media including the BBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, and was once a contributing editor to Microsoft Encarta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas O. Melia</span> American government official

Thomas O. Melia currently serves as Washington director at PEN America. Previously, he served in the Obama Administration as USAID's assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia (2015–2017) and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, at the United States Department of State (2010–2015). Melia previously served as executive director of Democracy International, an organization that designs, implements, and evaluates democracy and governance programs around the world. Melia also served as the deputy executive director of Freedom House, a human rights organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allison Stanger</span> American political scientist and academic

Allison Katherine Stanger is an American political scientist and the Russell J. Leng '60 Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College, Vermont and the founding director of Middlebury's Rohatyn Center for International Affairs. Stanger has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 2004, and between 2009 and 2011 she worked as a part-time consultant to the United States Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek J. Mitchell</span> American diplomat (born 1964)

Derek James Mitchell is an American diplomat with extensive experience in Asia policy. He was appointed by President Barack Obama as the first special representative and policy coordinator for Burma with rank of ambassador, and was sworn in by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on October 2, 2011. On June 29, 2012, the U.S. Senate confirmed him as the new United States Ambassador to Burma. On September 4, 2018, Mitchell succeeded Kenneth Wollack as president of the National Democratic Institute.

Frank Sampson Jannuzi is president and CEO of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation. He previously served as Deputy Executive Director at Amnesty International USA, where he shaped and promoted legislation and policies to advance universal human rights, protect individuals and communities at risk, and free prisoners of conscience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael C. Davis</span> American legal academic

Michael C. Davis is an American academic who currently serves as Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. He is also an affiliate research scholar at the US Asia Law Institute at New York University, a research associate at Columbia University and the Professor of Law and International Affairs at India's O.P. Jindal Global University.

References

  1. ↑ "William J. Dobson". ash.harvard.edu. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Author List". Lippencot Massie McQuilken. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
  3. ↑ "About". William J. Dobson. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Who We Are". Slate. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
  5. ↑ Dobson, William (May 16, 2009). "Saviors and Survivors". Financial Times. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
  6. ↑ The Dictator’s Learning Curve
  7. ↑ Publishers Weekly, BusinessWeek and Foreign Policy magazine
  8. ↑ "The Dictator's Learning Curve by William J. Dobson: 9780307477552 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  9. ↑ Young Global Leader
  10. ↑ "EAST ASIA ECONOMIC SUMMIT 2003 ASIA AGENDA MONITOR" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
  11. ↑ "SIF Distinguished Visitors". Singapore International Foundation. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Newsletter". Salzburg Global Seminar. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
  13. ↑ "2010-2011 Events" (PDF). Middlebury College. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Truman Scholarship". Herald-Journal. August 3, 1994. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
  15. ↑ "William J. Dobson | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  16. ↑ "William Dobson on Egypt's 'Quick', 'Dynamic' Process". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
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.